Researchers propose solar roofs on Germany's autobahns - energy that is always available

Researchers from Austria and Germany are investigating the practicality of solar parks over motorways.

The pilot project offers many possibilities, but also brings some problems.

Seibersdorf - driving a car and generating

ecologically at the same time

- with

over the

. It still sounds rather utopian. But architects from Switzerland designed a model back in 2011 that shows how the idea could be implemented. And a

is currently investigating to what extent solar roofs over

are suitable

as

.

According to a report by

, an area of ​​around

could be used to generate electricity

over the highways in

this country.

The area corresponds to the size of Bremen.

So the potential is great.

After all, the length of the

in Germany is more than 13,000 kilometers, making it the fourth longest network in the whole world, as

reported by

.

Solar roofs over motorways: protection from the weather and noise

If you build a kind of

consisting of solar roofs

on the German autobahn

, 41.5 terawatt hours of solar energy could be generated per year (* FR reported). According to

amount of

a third of German private households

. One advantage of expanding

in solar parks is their already sealed surface. For

on the green field, the area first has to be developed at great expense.

In addition, the scientists suspect that the roofing could protect the road surface from the weather or from precipitation and overheating, according to a press release.

This means that the

are preserved for longer and do not have to be laboriously renewed.

Additional noise protection could also be created.

There is already a motorway in China that is equipped with solar cells - however, they are not installed above the road, but on the motorway itself.

The world's first solar highway on Thursday opened to the public in eastern China's Shandong.

The 2-kilometer-long road can convert sunlight into electricity and directly transfer it to the power grid.

The highway can also charge electric vehicles.

pic.twitter.com/LlJaPUmQW6

- People's Daily, China (@PDChina) December 28, 2017

Solar park over highways: project could cost 100 billion euros

In order

not to completely darken

the

, scaffolding could be used that let enough light through, i.e. that are partially transparent.

The partially transparent modules should

only reduce

the efficiency of the

to a very small extent.

At the

of the

, too, is

involved.

In the first step, the

want to

design a suitable supporting structure and a prototype. Then the prototype for the

built and equipped with measurement technology. The scientists then want to test the concept for a year.

However, the research team also has to

reckon

with high

: In

a calculation for equipping German

with solar roofs,

Der

to a proud sum of around 100 billion euros.

Because the

would

protect

the

from the weather, but the wheel abrasion or road surface would not be washed away due to the lack of precipitation.

This could make roads more slippery and lose their grip.

In addition, it will only become clear after the test phase what

the costs for the major project would actually amount to.

* FR