The world’s first photovoltaic highway is under construction in Jinan, Shandong province, and scheduled to be completed by this year.

In the southern section of Jinan’s urban beltway, workers paved the photovoltaic road and placed solar power batteries under the white grids on Dec 13.

It will become the first highway in the world to apply photovoltaic road research when it opens as Jinan’s southern beltway by next year.

The solar-powered highway consists of three layers: a protective surface layer made of transparent concrete, a middle layer of solar-powered batteries to generate electricity, and an insulation layer to prevent dampness below.

The 2-km-long photovoltaic expressway is scheduled to open for public traffic by 2018 with a stable source of green electricity.