Effectiveness of pavement-solar energy system - An experimental study

A small-scale pilot project was built for the pavement-solar energy utilization in this paper. An automatic data acquisition system was designed to measure the effectiveness of the pavement solar energy system based on the operation data of 24 h a day in both summer and winter. Through 69 days (1656 h) of operation in summer, 2821 kW h of heat energy were stored in soil underground. In the transitional season, 4598 kW h of heat energy were taken out from soil during 104 days (2496 h) of operation in winter. The analysis showed that in summer, solar heat collection of asphalt pavement could effectively reduce 7 °C of its temperature. Under conditions of natural radiation, the average heat absorptivity of pavement was 37% and the average thermal storage effectiveness of the system was 17%. The electrical energy consumed by the system is only 11% of stored heat. During the winter, the asphalt pavement absorbs heat from underground soil which effectively increases its temperature, cutting 32% days of surface temperature below the freezing point. This not only save the energy for ice/snow removal but also mitigate associated safety risks.