This week, commuters in the Netherlands will have the chance to travel down the world's first public road made of solar panels. It's just a short section of a bike path right now, but if it works, it could be the future of road construction.

SolaRoad built the tiny solar segment out of 8-foot-by-12-foot concrete slabs with embedded silicon solar cells. The slabs are covered in super-tough 0.4-inch thick tempered glass that can withstand heavy impacts, coated in a dirt-shedding film and installed with a slight crown to maximize sun exposure.

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The $3.7 million project will open a 230-foot-long stretch of the solar roadway this week; later work will extend it to 330 feet. Researchers estimate the completed test stretch will gather enough solar power to support three households.

The flat roadway generates about 30 percent less energy than rooftop solar panels that can be aimed for better harvesting, but SolaRoad says that with widespread deployment, the devices could power traffic lights or even help charge electric cars. It's not the only company chasing down this dream: U.S.-based Solar Roadways recently raised more than $2 million in crowdfunding after its concept video for a similar project went viral.

Drawbacks, of course, remain: These solar roadways are still far more expensive than old-school pavement, and while Netherlands-based SolaRoads says its product stands up to heavy vehicles, we're still a long way from rolling fully-loaded tractor trailers down highways made of glass. But roads that send some power into the grid while they bake away in the sun sounds like a win to us.

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