A Dutch bike path with solar panels embedded in it is being hailed as a success after it generated enough power for a single-person household at a cost of $3.7 million. The feat reportedly took "SolaRoad" six months to accomplish.
The panels generated 3,000kwh of electricity.
"If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70kwh per square metre per year," SolaRoad spokesman Sten de Wit told Al Jazeera.
This amount of electricity generation, enough for one person to live off of for a year, exceeded the company's expectations. "We predicted [this] as an upper limit in the laboratory stage," Sten de Wit told Al Jazeera. "We can therefore conclude that it was a successful first half year."
Unfortunately, six months of bike riding has produced significant wear on the path. The top layer of the path has reportedly begun to peel off in some sections.
