Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting

Photovoltaic (PV) facilities are sustainable and promising approaches for energy harvesting, but their applications usually require adequate spaces. Road structures account for a considerable proportion of urban and suburban areas and may be feasible for incorporation with photovoltaic facilities, a...

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Autores principales: Yiqing Dai, Yan Yin, Yundi Lu
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:ead90739097e4adcac0d04748e3127592021-11-11T15:53:53ZStrategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting10.3390/en142170971996-1073https://doaj.org/article/ead90739097e4adcac0d04748e3127592021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/7097https://doaj.org/toc/1996-1073Photovoltaic (PV) facilities are sustainable and promising approaches for energy harvesting, but their applications usually require adequate spaces. Road structures account for a considerable proportion of urban and suburban areas and may be feasible for incorporation with photovoltaic facilities, and thereby have attracted research interests. One solution for such applications is to take advantage of the spare ground in road facilities without traffic load, where the solar panels are mounted as their conventional applications. Such practices have been applied in medians and slopes of roads and open spaces in interchanges. Applications in accessory buildings and facilities including noise/wind barriers, parking lots, and lightings have also been reported. More efforts in existing researches have been paid to PV applications in load-bearing pavement structures, possibly because the pavement structures cover the major area of road structures. Current strategies are encapsulating PV cells by transparent coverings to different substrates to prefabricate modular PV panels in factories for onsite installation. Test road sections with such modular solar panels have been reported, where inferior cost-effectiveness and difficulties in maintenance have been evidenced, suggesting more challenges exist than expected. In order to enhance the power output of the integrated PV facilities, experiences from building-integrated PVs may be helpful, including a selection of proper PV technologies, an optimized inclination of PV panels, and mitigating the operational temperature of PV cells. Novel integrations of amorphous silicon PV cells and glass fiber reinforced polymer profiles are proposed in this research for multi-scenario applications, and their mechanical robustness was evaluated by bending experiments.Yiqing DaiYan YinYundi LuMDPI AGarticlephotovoltaicssolar panelenergy harvestinghighwayurban streetexperimental investigationTechnologyTENEnergies, Vol 14, Iss 7097, p 7097 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic photovoltaics
solar panel
energy harvesting
highway
urban street
experimental investigation
Technology
T
spellingShingle photovoltaics
solar panel
energy harvesting
highway
urban street
experimental investigation
Technology
T
Yiqing Dai
Yan Yin
Yundi Lu
Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting
description Photovoltaic (PV) facilities are sustainable and promising approaches for energy harvesting, but their applications usually require adequate spaces. Road structures account for a considerable proportion of urban and suburban areas and may be feasible for incorporation with photovoltaic facilities, and thereby have attracted research interests. One solution for such applications is to take advantage of the spare ground in road facilities without traffic load, where the solar panels are mounted as their conventional applications. Such practices have been applied in medians and slopes of roads and open spaces in interchanges. Applications in accessory buildings and facilities including noise/wind barriers, parking lots, and lightings have also been reported. More efforts in existing researches have been paid to PV applications in load-bearing pavement structures, possibly because the pavement structures cover the major area of road structures. Current strategies are encapsulating PV cells by transparent coverings to different substrates to prefabricate modular PV panels in factories for onsite installation. Test road sections with such modular solar panels have been reported, where inferior cost-effectiveness and difficulties in maintenance have been evidenced, suggesting more challenges exist than expected. In order to enhance the power output of the integrated PV facilities, experiences from building-integrated PVs may be helpful, including a selection of proper PV technologies, an optimized inclination of PV panels, and mitigating the operational temperature of PV cells. Novel integrations of amorphous silicon PV cells and glass fiber reinforced polymer profiles are proposed in this research for multi-scenario applications, and their mechanical robustness was evaluated by bending experiments.
format article
author Yiqing Dai
Yan Yin
Yundi Lu
author_facet Yiqing Dai
Yan Yin
Yundi Lu
author_sort Yiqing Dai
title Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting
title_short Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting
title_full Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting
title_fullStr Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting
title_full_unstemmed Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting
title_sort strategies to facilitate photovoltaic applications in road structures for energy harvesting
publisher MDPI AG
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/ead90739097e4adcac0d04748e312759
work_keys_str_mv AT yiqingdai strategiestofacilitatephotovoltaicapplicationsinroadstructuresforenergyharvesting
AT yanyin strategiestofacilitatephotovoltaicapplicationsinroadstructuresforenergyharvesting
AT yundilu strategiestofacilitatephotovoltaicapplicationsinroadstructuresforenergyharvesting
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