By Li Shouen, CCTV.com reporter
In recent days, a clip of trial operations of a futuristic solar-powered highway in Jinan, Shandong Province has become a big hit on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. And many foreign media outlets also gave much attention to the world’s first cutting-edge smart highway.
CNET, a US based media outlet focusing on sci-tech news, posted the video clip on its FaceBook and Twitter official pages. On Facebook, the views had surged to over 1.6 million as of March 31, since the clip was released about 3 months ago; and Twitter views of the clip had also reached over 143k as of the same day, a week after it was posted.
The clip aroused the interests of other users and they retweeted or reposted it on their Twitter or FaceBook pages. For example, users from Hong Kong and Kenya had retweeted it, while some Indian netizens reposted it on FaceBook. Khan Adil Khan was amazed -- "Amazing...World’s first solar freeway constructed in China to create electricity from direct sunlight through road."
The futuristic highway had also attracted heated debates, many gave their comments under the CNET’s FB post. Some discussed it from a technological perspective, some expressed their amazement, while others expressed hopes that their government would also build roads just like this.
Foreign media outlets, including Russia Today (RT), The Hindu, Pakistan Defence and Sputnik etc. also covered the news about China's solar power highways, either the first one, which has been in operation, or on the future development of China's solar-powered superhighways.
Then, what is exactly the solar-powered highway and why has it drawn so much attention? The altenergymag.com says the smart highway can "generate solar energy, for improving the operation of autonomous cars, for lighting, and for monitoring the condition of the road."
According to altenergymag.com, "PV (photovoltaic) roads can release power to electric vehicles passing over them. They are also able to instantly melt a winter snow, covering the road. These roadways will be able to provide technical support to autonomous vehicles in the future.
This roadway can handle 10 times more pressure than normal asphalt; and in a year, it can generate 1 gigawatt of electricity, which will be used to power the street lights and a snow-melting system on the road. Should electric car re-charge stations be built in the future, the road is designed to supply power to the stations."
That really sounds cool and futuristic.
(The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com)
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