A Seminar Report on

SOLAR ROADWAYS

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor of
Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering

by

M. Ashwini Krishna

16251A0241

Under the guidance of

Mr. T. Surya Prakash

Assistant Professor, Dept. of EEE

G. NARAYANAMMA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

(For Women)
(ISO Certified & NBA accredited Institution)
(Affiliated to JNTUH, Kukatpally, Hyderabad)
HYDERABAD – 500 104, TS., INDIA
October, 2019

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 G. NARAYANAMMA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE
(For Women)
Shaikpet, Hyderabad – 500 104

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Seminar report on “SOLAR ROADWAYS” is being

submitted by M. Ashwini Krishna- 16251A0241 in partial fulfilment for the award of B. Tech
in Electrical and Electronics Engineering to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
Hyderabad is a record of bonafide work carried out by her under our guidance and supervision.
This seminar report has not been submitted to any other university of institution for the award
of any degree or diploma.

Mr. T. Surya Prakash Mr. G. Ramana Reddy

Assistant Professor Associate Professor

Seminar Guide Seminar Co-Ordinator

Dr. N. Malla Reddy

Professor and HOD

EEE Department

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I whole heartedly express my thanks to Mr. T. Surya Prakash, Seminar Guide, Department of
Electrical and Electronics Engineering for sparing time to go through every tiny detail and give
his valuable suggestions to make this report a success.

I sincerely thank Mr. G. Ramana Reddy, Technical Seminar Coordinator, Department of

Electrical and Electronics Engineering for sparing his valuable time to extend help in this
seminar.

I express my gratitude to Dr. N. Malla Reddy, Head of the Department, Electrical and
Electronics Engineering for his constant inspiration and encouragement.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION 1

CONSTRUCTION 1

ADVANTAGES 6

DISADVANTAGES 7

PRACTICAL SCENARIOS 8

APPLICATIONS 11

LIMITATIONS 12

CONCLUSION 13

REFERENCES 14

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 ABSTRACT

This report on Solar Roadways deals with the construction, advantages, applications
and limitations of Solar Roadways. A Solar roadway is a road that generates electricity through
solar powered photovoltaic cells. The main aim of these roadways is to cover the area under
roadways for the generation of electricity. Solar roadways have an advantage that they are more
durable than conventional roads and has a capability to meet the electricity demand of
households within the neighborhood. They can be used in high ways, walk ways, bike paths,
drive ways etc. and some modern roadways can even charge electric vehicles. But the
installation and maintenance costs are more and they require a lot of planning to install. This
report looks into solar roadways whether it is a viable future alternative or an over expensive
project.

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 SOLAR ROADWAYS

In this seminar, the construction, advantages, disadvantages, applications and

limitations of Solar Roadways are discussed along with the consideration of some practical
examples.

INTRODUCTION

As the world is focusing more and more on renewable energy sources for power
generation, solar energy is one of the most viable sources of renewable energy. Moreover,
as the need and demand for solar energy is rapidly increasing, the ways of capturing solar
energy efficiently have become an important research area.

Presently, the major part of the solar power generated is from the solar power plants.
These plants occupy large plain areas just to capture the sunlight. This excessive usage of
land can be overcome by installing panels on rooftops, Space based solar satellites, floating
solar plant, solar trees etc. Solar roadway is also one of the new solutions to overcome this
problem.

A solar roadway is a road surface that generates electricity by solar powered photo
voltaic cells embedded below a tough transparent surface. This report discusses the
advantages, disadvantages and explores some of the practical instances where solar
roadways are implemented.

CONSTRUCTION

The solar roadway prototype panel consists of basically three layers:

i. Road surface layer

ii. Electronics layer
iii. Base plate layer

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 Construction of Solar Roadways
i. Road surface layer:
The top layer of solar roadway is made up of translucent, shatter proof and high
tensile tempered glass. It is textured to create proper traction for vehicles and
pedestrians. It is rough enough to provide traction but still allows sunlight to pass
through it to the solar cells embedded within. Each unit is made up of top and bottom
glass panels, with other components like solar cells, LEDs enclosed between them.

Most of these roads are made of hexagonally shaped for stability and flexibility.
Solar Roadways can handle trucks up to 250,000lbs or 113,398kg which was first
estimated only up to 80,000lbs or 36,287kg.

The tempered glass used in these panels makes it four times harder than regular
non-tempered glass. Tempering also makes the glass stronger and less prone to a
thermal break down.

The texture of the panel also plays a critical role for the traction to be possible. Two
types of textures are in use namely, non-critical and critical textures. The non-critical
texture is used for walking or low speed cases which is capable of stopping a car moving
at 40mph even when its raining. The critical surface layer is capable of stopping cars
moving with speeds up to 80mph.

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 The durability of these surfaces is claimed to be minimum of 20 years. In cases of
accidents or any disasters these panels can be replaced easily as they are specific blocks
of glasses. In most of the western countries in which solar roadways are installed,
accumulation of snow on the surface of road is a major problem. Hence, Heating
elements are used in the panels for removal of the accumulated snow. However, in
tropical countries like India, snow accumulation is not a problem.

Road surface layer

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 Hexagonal tempered glass panel

ii. Electronics layer

This layer consists of a layer of solar cells i.e. photovoltaic cells, microprocessors,
LED lights and circuitry which helps the electricity to be transmitted to the next layer.
PV cells in this layer receive photons from the sunrays hit on them through the top layer
and generate electricity in DC form. This is then passed to the bottom layer.

This layer has embedded LED lights to replace painting for road lines and signage.
This was proposed in the early stages of solar roadways when it was realized that the
surface cannot be painted for road lines and signage because it would block the sunlight
onto the panels. This makes the signage flexible and customizable. Moreover, safety
can be improved a lot during night times. These LEDs are more visible than
conventional paintings on the road during night time.

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 Electronics layer

LEDs for road lines

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iii. Base plate layer
It is the bottom most layer of a solar road which collects the power generated in
the electronics layer.

While the electronics layer collects the energy from sunlight, it is the base plate
layer that distributes the power down the line to homes and others connected to the solar
roadway.

Base plate layer

Base plate layer

ADVANTAGES
 The main advantage of solar roadways is that it uses renewable source of energy
for the generation of electricity. It can act as a great source of clean energy for
the world production of electricity.
 Life span of solar roads is high i.e. a minimum of 20 years without any external
damage to the road. This is far better than the life span of regular roads which
ranges from 7-12 years.

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  In cold countries, where ice and snow accumulation are a major problem, the
heating feature of solar roadways gives a good solution to remove ice on roads.
 The mess caused by the power lines hung on poles can be minimized by using
solar roads to transmit power.
 It can be used as auxiliary power source when the primary power source is not
available.
 One of the issues faced by solar power generation is that it occupies a lot of
space for the installation of solar panels over a large area. This can be overcome
by installing solar roadways.
 The initial cost of installing a solar roadway is three times that of asphalt roads
but considering the lifetime, solar roads are three times more durable than
asphalt roads so that the initial cost is almost equal for both of them. However,
solar roadways generate electricity which is not in case of asphalt roads.

DISADVANTAGES
Solar roadways presented a lot of issues in practical scenarios:
 Accumulation of dust and other materials on the surface of road blocks the
sunlight from falling on to the solar panels. They have to be removed regularly
which increases the maintenance cost.
 In western countries, ice and snow cover the top layer and make it difficult to
absorb light. In tropical countries like India, snow is not a problem but the top
layer of road which is made of glass might produce glare when the intensity of
sunlight is more.
 Repairing of damaged solar panels or other equipment during accidents is very
expensive.
 The signage or road lines would be uncertain in cases of damage to the
equipment.
 Installing a solar roadway requires town planning to have accurate orientation
of buildings, roads, walkways, parking lots etc.
 They do not work efficiently in places where sunlight is not so adequate.
 Their function is dependent on seasonal changes.

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PRACTICAL SCENARIOS
Solar roadways have been an area subject to a lot of interest and many countries
have been trying to install them. While the initial cases of solar roadways have not been
proven to be successful some of the recent projects are getting better.
 Solar roadway in France- It was the first solar powered roadway installed in the
world in 2016 in Normandy. Firstly, it was installed in a place where there was less
abundance of sunlight throughout the year. It was installed by Wattway and it
extended up to 1km length and covered an area of 30,000 sq.ft of solar panels.
The Wattway trial road was estimated to produce about 150,000 KWh per year
but it could reach only 80,000 KWh by 2018. After the road was open it could not
stand the traffic and began to fail. The panels came lose and broke into pieces. In
May 2018, 90m of the road was demolished sue to its failure.

Broken solar roadway

 Solar roadways in Georgia- An 18-mile or 28 km stretch solar roadway was

installed in rural Georgia also by Wattway. The way was called ‘The Ray’ in
respect of The Ray C Anderson Foundation which funded the road. It includes
a solar powered electric car charging station. It powers Georgia Visitor
Information Center adjacent to it.

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 The Ray roadway in Georgia

 Solar expressway in China -A 1km stretch expressway was constructed in

2018 in Jinan, in China.it extended upto 6000 sq.m. with two lanes and an
emergency lane. It was estimated to generate about 1 million KWh per year.
However, after installation some of the solar panels were robbed out.

Solar roadway in China

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 Bike path in Netherlands- A bike lane was installed in Krommenie in
Netherlands over a length of 70m. The top layer was provided with 1cm
protective coating. It was able to generate 70KWh per sq. m. in a year. It is one
of the few successful projects of solar roadways.

Solar roadway in Netherlands

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  Solar roadways in Idaho- The usage of hexagonal shaped panels for solar
roadways started in Idaho where 430 m2 stretch roadway was installed in
Sandpoint. It is also the first path to include LEDs for illumination of road

Solar roadway in Sandpoint, Idaho

APPLICATIONS

The solar roadways find vast applications in transportation and commuting:

 One of the major applications of improved solar roadways is the illumination of
roads during night time.

Illumination of road by LEDs

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  Signage like warnings and other signs can be provided with the microprocessors
embedded in the roadways.
 They can be used not only on roadways but also in parking lots, sidewalks,
highways, tarmacs, bike paths, run ways etc.
 Traffic assistance i.e. road lanes can be customized as per required during the
cases where there is heavy traffic congestion on one lane but less on the other
side.
 Some of the solar roadways are embedded with induction plating inside them
which recharges the electric vehicles while in motion.
 They are more suitable for roads with less shading like highways outside the
city, where there are no buildings and in desert areas.
 Animal accidents during night time can be reduced by installing solar roadways
in which the panels glow on sensing the stepping of animals on them.

LIMITATIONS

Some of the limitations of implementation of Solar Roadways are that

 They are not tilted at an angle so maximum absorption of sunrays is not possible.
 The pv cells are covered by glass layer which limits the absorption of solar
energy.
 Shading from trees or buildings is also a major concern which blocks sunlight.
 During traffic hours, major portion of the roads are covered by vehicles which
makes it less probable for the panels to absorb light.

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CONCLUSION

As major part of the world is looking towards clean and renewable energy sources
to generate power, solar roadways is a great idea for this purpose. Solar roadways
provide a scope to use solar energy more. They have been in practice in some places
but have shown results only in few of them. Cost of maintenance of solar roadways is
more than their outcome. Even though India is a tropical country with abundant solar
energy it is not so easy to implement the solar roadways with high efficiency.

It is one of the best examples in which it can be stated that an innovative idea is not
sufficient for the implementation of it without having a complete knowledge of
technical and economic aspects arising from the idea. One has to introspect that the
maintenance cost of Solar Roadways is way higher than the output from them and that
they are practically not feasible with current technology. In order to further implement
solar roadways, more research has to be done to overcome the economic and
infrastructure problems faced by them in real time.

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REFERENCES

[1] www.solarroadways.com
[2] www.slideshare.net
[3] www.interestingengineering.com
[4] www.krishisanskriti.org

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