Finland wants to be the world’s first country that will build a “green highway” with service stations offering charging points for electric vehicles and biofuel pumps. Aki Marjasvaara with the Loviisa municipality spearheading the Project said that: “The aim is to create the model for an ecological highway that could be used even on an international level”.
The “green highway” will link Turku, Finland’s southwestern coast with Vaalimaa near the Russian border and will measure almost 130 kilometers. In charge of the project is the town of Loviisa, which is located in the east of Helsinki, the ones who proposed making this road “green”.
The municipality wants to use the waste and other resources from the region to make the biofuel and electricity to keep the building process environment-friendly and the “green” cars running. Of course, there will be normal petrol stations on the highway for the rest of the cars.
Other proposals include installing geothermal heat pumps and providing information to users about their emission levels and the impact they are having on the environment. The highway will have “smart” lighting, which is a system that will automatically switch off the light at entry points where there are no cars and adjust the light according to weather conditions.
The Loviisa municipality is studying if this project is feasible and if it is big enough to get European support. The project will get finance from companies like Fortum, Neste Oil and Ensto.
The Loviisa municipality’s goal is to create a carbon neutral highway and hopes that the construction will start in the second half of next year and expects to complete in 2016, at a total cost of about 900 million dollars.
[Source: Physorg]
