Technical Aspects for Road Integrated Photovoltaics Towards a More Sustainable Mobility Sector

Photovoltaic modules can be integrated into the mobility infrastructure, to realize a dual use of already sealed land. While the theoretical potential is very large, actual technical solutions are unlikely to be installed in every road, railway and bike path. In this work, we evaluate three different integration categories: Into the traffic area, e.g., PV-Pavement, beside the traffic route, e.g., PV-Noise barriers, and above the traffic area, e.g., PV-Roofing. We discuss four quantitative technical aspects, the Specific Yield (kWh/kWp), Specific Costs (€/kWp), Non-PV Cost Share (%), and Integration Capacity (kWp/rm) and two qualitative aspects, the availability of specific Site Requirements and the PV Module Complexity. For each aspect, we assign a rating to the three categories and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current technical solutions. We find that PV upgrade solutions for existing noise barriers have a high technical feasibility, while PV-Roofing has the highest practical potential. Solutions for PV-Pavements are currently mostly relevant for niche applications, but all approaches can contribute in different places to the generation of sustainable energy in already sealed areas.