Nowadays the popularity of photovoltaic farms keeps growing. This is the reason why scientists are constantly looking for new solutions, resulting in unusual, innovative projects. One of them is the latest idea of scientists from Switzerland, Austria and Germany, who have joined their forces and came up with photovoltaic farms erected over highways and expressways.
It’s a great initiative to create additional space for generating low-carbon energy, because as we all know – there’s never enough clean energy. The installations are expected to stand over Swiss roads as early as 2023. That means thousands of kilometers of highways, thus thousands of kilometers of photovoltaic panels and huge amounts of green electricity produced
The first stage of the project is to develop a prototype of the roof so that it meets all the requirements for, among other things, safety and resistance to possible damage. The next stage is to estimate the cost of the entire project, along with its subsequent maintenance and to test the effectiveness of the installation conducted for a year on selected sections.
The realization of this project has many more advantages than the mere production of low-carbon energy. These include protecting the pavement from various weather conditions which helps to increase its lifespan, improve safety and the comfort of residents, as the canopy is also intended to act as noise barriers.
The project is financed by the Research Promotion Agency, the Austrian Ministry for Climate, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, the German Federal Ministry of Transport and the Swiss Federal Office of Roads and Highways. This combination certainly guarantees success. We’re looking forward to further details and more innovative projects in the future.
Title picture source: http://www.greendream.foundation/
