In November 2014 the Netherlands installed solar panels in a way that had never been seen before; they created roads and bike paths from standard solar panels that we install on roofs, and covered them in glass and silicon to protect them. The result was a 70 metre test road, just outside of Amsterdam, which in its first 6 months, produced 3,000kWh of electricity, around enough energy to power an average household for a whole year.
The solar roads seen in the Netherlands could become the future of renewable energy, with proposals for the panels to even generate electricity for road signals, traffic management and lane designation. An artists impression can be seen below.
Could this be what our roads look like in the years to come?