Eco Factor: Green highway with EV charging service stations and pumps filled with local biofuels.
Aiming is to create the model for an ecological highway that could be used anywhere in the world, Finland has take up a project under which it will build the world’s first “green highway”. The 81-mile stretch of pavement yet to be built on a highway linking Turku on Finland’s southwestern coast with Vaalimaa near the Russian border will include service stations offering charging points for electric cars and pumps filled with local biofuels.
The plan involves the production of ethanol from waste and other resources found along the way, as well as clean electricity to power both the cars and infrastructure along the way. Other proposals include installing geothermal heat pumps, providing information to users on their emission levels and installing smart lighting systems along the way that adjust illumination levels depending on the weather and other factors.
The $900 million project is expected to see completion by 2016. Although the Loviisa municipality is still a little skeptical about the practicality of the plan, but it is organizing a study and other efforts to determine its feasibility. If the goal of creating a stretch of highway that is carbon neutral becomes a reality, the result of the world will get a model to follow.
Via: Popsci
