Can you cut 1 Tonne of carbon pollution out of your life?
Take the challengeDo you remember 6 months ago when the Netherlands built the solar bike track, and everyone went crazy! Well, rightly so... because apparently it's doing even better than expected! Well done!
The 70-metre test bike path generating 3,000 kWh, or enough electricity to power a small household for a year. Imagine if all our roads were surfaced with solar. Imagine the solar energy that could be generated then, it would be astronomical!
"If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70kwh per square metre per year," Sten de Wit, spokesman for SolaRoad, the group behind the project, told Tarek Bazley at Al Jazeera.
The SolaRoad website states:
"The idea behind SolaRoad is simple: sunlight falling on the road surface is absorbed by solar cells and converted into electricity – the road surface acts as a large solar panel. The electricity generated in this way will find practical applications in street lighting."
The solar panels are sandwiched between glass, silicon rubber and concrete. They are strong enough to support 12-tonne fire trucks. Each panel connects to smart metres, which optimise their output. The electricity is then fed straight into street lighting, or the grid.
This proves that it just takes innovation and enough courage to execute the plan for it to pay off. There's so much talk and not enough action. But when action is taken and the benefits are so obvious, it brings us so much closer to changing the way things are.
And look how cool they look at night time!
1 Million Women is more than our name, it's our goal! We're building a movement of strong, inspirational women acting on climate change by leading low-carbon lives. To make sure that our message has an impact, we need more women adding their voice. We need to be louder. Joining us online means your voice and actions can be counted. We need you.
