IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i21p7097-d669181.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting

Author

Listed:
  • Yiqing Dai

    (College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China
    Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia)

  • Yan Yin

    (Department of Publicity, Ding Huai Men Campus, Jiangsu Open University, Nanjing 210036, China)

  • Yundi Lu

    (School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Yiqing Dai & Yan Yin & Yundi Lu, 2021. "Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:7097-:d:669181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/7097/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/7097/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Soullam & Lee, Yuhwa & Moon, Hak-Ryong, 2018. "Siting criteria and feasibility analysis for PV power generation projects using road facilities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3061-3069.
    2. Xiang, Bo & Cao, Xiaoling & Yuan, Yanping & Hasanuzzaman, M. & Zeng, Chao & Ji, Yasheng & Sun, Liangliang, 2018. "A novel hybrid energy system combined with solar-road and soil-regenerator: Sensitivity analysis and optimization," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(PA), pages 419-430.
    3. Hu, Hengwu & Vizzari, Domenico & Zha, Xudong & Roberts, Ronald, 2021. "Solar pavements: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    4. Hanifi, Hamed & Pander, Matthias & Zeller, Ulli & Ilse, Klemens & Dassler, David & Mirza, Mark & Bahattab, Mohammed A. & Jaeckel, Bengt & Hagendorf, Christian & Ebert, Matthias & Gottschalg, Ralph & S, 2020. "Loss analysis and optimization of PV module components and design to achieve higher energy yield and longer service life in desert regions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    5. Chae, Young Tae & Kim, Jeehwan & Park, Hongsik & Shin, Byungha, 2014. "Building energy performance evaluation of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) window with semi-transparent solar cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 217-227.
    6. Martin, Nigel & Rice, John, 2013. "The solar photovoltaic feed-in tariff scheme in New South Wales, Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 697-706.
    7. Shukla, Akash Kumar & Sudhakar, K. & Baredar, Prashant & Mamat, Rizalman, 2018. "Solar PV and BIPV system: Barrier, challenges and policy recommendation in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3314-3322.
    8. Venugopal, Prasanth & Shekhar, Aditya & Visser, Erwin & Scheele, Natalia & Chandra Mouli, Gautham Ram & Bauer, Pavol & Silvester, Sacha, 2018. "Roadway to self-healing highways with integrated wireless electric vehicle charging and sustainable energy harvesting technologies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1226-1239.
    9. Debbarma, Mary & Sudhakar, K. & Baredar, Prashant, 2017. "Thermal modeling, exergy analysis, performance of BIPV and BIPVT: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1276-1288.
    10. Niloufar Zabihi & Mohamed Saafi, 2020. "Recent Developments in the Energy Harvesting Systems from Road Infrastructures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-27, August.
    11. Christophe Ballif & Laure-Emmanuelle Perret-Aebi & Sophie Lufkin & Emmanuel Rey, 2018. "Integrated thinking for photovoltaics in buildings," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(6), pages 438-442, June.
    12. Wang, J. & Xiao, F. & Zhao, H., 2021. "Thermoelectric, piezoelectric and photovoltaic harvesting technologies for pavement engineering," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    13. Lee, Taesoo D. & Ebong, Abasifreke U., 2017. "A review of thin film solar cell technologies and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1286-1297.
    14. Branker, K. & Pathak, M.J.M. & Pearce, J.M., 2011. "A review of solar photovoltaic levelized cost of electricity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 4470-4482.
    15. Ye, Liang-Cheng & Rodrigues, João F.D. & Lin, Hai Xiang, 2017. "Analysis of feed-in tariff policies for solar photovoltaic in China 2011–2016," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 496-505.
    16. Parida, Bhubaneswari & Iniyan, S. & Goic, Ranko, 2011. "A review of solar photovoltaic technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 1625-1636, April.
    17. Aelenei, Daniel & Lopes, Rui Amaral & Aelenei, Laura & Gonçalves, Helder, 2019. "Investigating the potential for energy flexibility in an office building with a vertical BIPV and a PV roof system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 189-197.
    18. Jung, Jaehoon & Han, SangUk & Kim, Byungil, 2019. "Digital numerical map-oriented estimation of solar energy potential for site selection of photovoltaic solar panels on national highway slopes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 57-68.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dibin Zhu, 2022. "Advance Energy Harvesting Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-3, March.
    2. Nithesh Naik & P. Suresh & Sanjay Yadav & M. P. Nisha & José Luis Arias-Gonzáles & Juan Carlos Cotrina-Aliaga & Ritesh Bhat & Manohara D. Jalageri & Yashaarth Kaushik & Aakif Budnar Kunjibettu, 2023. "A Review on Composite Materials for Energy Harvesting in Electric Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    3. Jiang, Wei & Zhang, Shuo & Wang, Teng & Zhang, Yufei & Sha, Aimin & Xiao, Jingjing & Yuan, Dongdong, 2024. "Evaluation method for the availability of solar energy resources in road areas before route corridor planning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    4. Marius Minea & Cătălin Marian Dumitrescu, 2022. "On the Feasibility and Efficiency of Self-Powered Green Intelligent Highways," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-32, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yiqing Dai & Yu Bai, 2020. "Performance Improvement for Building Integrated Photovoltaics in Practice: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Gassar, Abdo Abdullah Ahmed & Cha, Seung Hyun, 2021. "Review of geographic information systems-based rooftop solar photovoltaic potential estimation approaches at urban scales," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    3. Krarti, Moncef, 2021. "Evaluation of PV integrated sliding-rotating overhangs for US apartment buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    4. Vassiliades, C. & Agathokleous, R. & Barone, G. & Forzano, C. & Giuzio, G.F. & Palombo, A. & Buonomano, A. & Kalogirou, S., 2022. "Building integration of active solar energy systems: A review of geometrical and architectural characteristics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Mengjin Hu & Xiaoyang Song & Zhongxu Bao & Zhao Liu & Mengju Wei & Yaohuan Huang, 2022. "Evaluation of the Economic Potential of Photovoltaic Power Generation in Road Spaces," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-16, September.
    6. Liu, Zhengguang & Guo, Zhiling & Chen, Qi & Song, Chenchen & Shang, Wenlong & Yuan, Meng & Zhang, Haoran, 2023. "A review of data-driven smart building-integrated photovoltaic systems: Challenges and objectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
    7. Becerra-Fernandez, Mauricio & Sarmiento, Alfonso T. & Cardenas, Laura M., 2023. "Sustainability assessment of the solar energy supply chain in Colombia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    8. Tiantian Zhang & Meng Wang & Hongxing Yang, 2018. "A Review of the Energy Performance and Life-Cycle Assessment of Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-34, November.
    9. Tyagi, V.V. & Rahim, Nurul A.A. & Rahim, N.A. & Selvaraj, Jeyraj A./L., 2013. "Progress in solar PV technology: Research and achievement," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 443-461.
    10. Hengtian Wang & Xiaolong Yang & Xinxin Xu & Liu Fei, 2021. "Exploring Opportunities and Challenges of Solar PV Power under Carbon Peak Scenario in China: A PEST Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-28, May.
    11. Min Hee Chung, 2020. "Comparison of Economic Feasibility for Efficient Peer-to-Peer Electricity Trading of PV-Equipped Residential House in Korea," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-21, July.
    12. Skandalos, Nikolaos & Wang, Meng & Kapsalis, Vasileios & D'Agostino, Delia & Parker, Danny & Bhuvad, Sushant Suresh & Udayraj, & Peng, Jinqing & Karamanis, Dimitris, 2022. "Building PV integration according to regional climate conditions: BIPV regional adaptability extending Köppen-Geiger climate classification against urban and climate-related temperature increases," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    13. Kim, Chungil & Jeong, Myeong Sang & Ko, Jaehwan & Ko, MyeongGeun & Kang, Min Gu & Song, Hyung-Jun, 2021. "Inhomogeneous rear reflector induced hot-spot risk and power loss in building-integrated bifacial c-Si photovoltaic modules," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 825-835.
    14. Ding, H. & Zhou, D.Q. & Liu, G.Q. & Zhou, P., 2020. "Cost reduction or electricity penetration: Government R&D-induced PV development and future policy schemes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    15. Mao, Mingxuan & Chen, Siyu & Yan, Jinyue, 2023. "Modelling pavement photovoltaic arrays with cellular automata," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(PB).
    16. Zhang, Yijie & Ma, Tao & Yang, Hongxing & Li, Zongyu & Wang, Yuhong, 2023. "Simulation and experimental study on the energy performance of a pre-fabricated photovoltaic pavement," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    17. Coria, Gustavo & Penizzotto, Franco & Pringles, Rolando, 2019. "Economic analysis of photovoltaic projects: The Argentinian renewable generation policy for residential sectors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1167-1177.
    18. Jiang, Wei & Zhang, Shuo & Wang, Teng & Zhang, Yufei & Sha, Aimin & Xiao, Jingjing & Yuan, Dongdong, 2024. "Evaluation method for the availability of solar energy resources in road areas before route corridor planning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    19. Zhang, Chengyan & Ji, Jie & Ke, Wei & Tang, Yayun, 2024. "Comprehensive performance investigation of a novel thermal catalytic semi-transparent PV double-skin ventilated window integrated with CdTe cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    20. Hoppmann, Joern & Volland, Jonas & Schmidt, Tobias S. & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2014. "The economic viability of battery storage for residential solar photovoltaic systems – A review and a simulation model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1101-1118.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:7097-:d:669181. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.