From the case studies, they have derived that a photovoltaic roof covered over the four-lane 205-km-long Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway can help in generating 104 mw of power. While, the Ahmedabad-Vadodara national highway, which is 93-km-long, can generate 61 mw of electricity.
India is going solar all the way! In what can be termed as an interesting step to tap the natural energy, a proposal has been floated to double up all the major Indian roads with solar roofs. The idea is the brainchild of scientists at the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI).
According to a recently published paper in the International Journal of Energy, Environment and Engineering, the scientists say highways can be used to generate solar power, if a roof of solar panels was laid over them, across the length of the roads.
The photovoltaic panels convert sunlight into electricity. According to an IANS report, Tirumalachetty Harinarayana, director of GERMI and one of the authors of the paper, said, “While the price of PV panels is falling day by day, the price of land and its availability are constraints in the development of solar power, especially in India. Our proposal overcomes this obstacle by using the space over the highways for placing the PV panels. This space can contribute to energy generation without extra land costs.”
Before extending the proposal, the scientists have carried case studies on two highways passing through Gujarat, using computer simulation. From the case studies, they have derived that a PV roof cover over the four-lane 205-km-long Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway can help in generating 104 mw of power. While, the Ahmedabad-Vadodara national highway, which is 93-km-long, can generate 61 mw of electricity.
The scientists have suggested that the same concept can be applied on the 52,584-kilometre-long national and state highways in India with four lanes or more. If the project of having solar power on national highways attains success, the researchers are also thinking of extending it to the rail network for solar energy generation.
