While the road is supposed to generate 800 kilowatt hours per day (kWh/day), some recently released data indicates a yield closer to 409 kWh/day, or 150,000 kWh/yr. For an idea of how much this is, the average UK home uses around 10 kWh/day. The road’s capacity factor—which measures the efficiency of the technology by dividing its average power output by its potential maximum power output—is just 4 percent.
By contrast, the Cestas solar plant near Bordeaux, which features rows of solar panels carefully angled towards the sun, has a maximum power output of 300,000 kWs and a capacity factor of 14 percent. And at a cost of €360 million ($423 million), or €1,200 ($1,400) per installed kW, one-tenth the cost of our solar roadway, it generates three times more power.
Via Oliver Hamilton.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/solar-panels-replaced-tarmac-on-a-motorway-here-are-the-results/
SHOCKING result!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting article overall, it has two significant flaws
ReplyDelete1. It appears to miss all in-town roads, and the parking lots that go with. This will throw the road to roof area computation off substantially.
2. The efficiencies that road installations are compared with are industrial scale solar installs - not the efficiencies of typical roof installations.