World’s First Solar Bike Path Coming to The Netherlands

The Netherlands is about to make you feel really guilty about driving your car to work this morning.

The world's first solar-powered bike lane is scheduled to open this week in Amsterdam.

The initial 70-meter long path will run between two suburbs of the city, and the power it generates will be fed into the electrical grid, generating "as much electricity as is used by 2-3 average households annually."

SolaRoad, the company who designed it, explains that it will be able to withstand the pressure from everyday use.

It consists of concrete modules of 2.5 by 3.5 meters with a translucent top layer of tempered glass, which is about 1 cm thick. Underneath the glass are crystalline silicon solar cells.