The Solaroad in Krommenie is a solar energy generating cycle lane

Riding a bicycle sure helps save a load of energy, taken that you chose to leave your gas-o-holic car home and opt for a greener pair of wheels. Well, riding a bicycle in the town of Krommenie, near Amsterdam could be a lot greener than it already is, if all goes as planned by the government of North Holland. Plans are currently being drawn up to install solar panels on a cycle path! The project known as the Solaroad developed by the TNO research institute with the Province of North Holland, the Ooms Avenhorn Group and Imtech is yet in its conceptual stages and might just show up in 2012. Using thick concrete blocks covered in a 1cm thick layer of silicon solar cells and protected by toughened glass, this cycle path will generate energy by soaking in the sun, while you calmly ride across it.

Expected to generate 50 kWh per square meter per yea, the energy will then be routed to street lamps and traffic signals. Innovative touches to a cycle lane indeed, imagine what a highway with integrated solar panels could do!
[Springwise]