An AI-powered smart management system used for China's first zero-emission expressway service area located in Jinan City of east China's Shandong Province is helping the highway facility to efficiently manage its green power generation and storage, so as to maintain uninterrupted free electricity supply day and night.
The East Jinan Service Area covers an area of over 20 hectares. With solar panels being installed across the highway facility, it is the first service area in China that operates with zero carbon emission.
A management system, powered by AI macrosystems and developed independently by the service area, is capable of machine learning and thus can come up with plans for efficiently managing the solar panels' power generation and storage.
"Every morning, after 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock, there is sufficient sunshine, and the efficiency of solar power generation reaches a peak. During that period, the amount of power generated is far more than the service area needs. At this point, the system will shift to a working mode that allows it to provide power supply while storing the rest. After 17:00 when light diminishes and the efficiency of power generation gradually decreases, the system will automatically start to release power to ensure uninterrupted supply of green electricity to the whole service area," said Kong Jie, deputy general manager of Shandong High Speed Energy Development Company, developer of the service area's green power generation system.
"The Jinan East Service Area is our country's first zero-emission service area. Throughout 2023, it helped save over 3,400 metric tons of carbon emissions and it has achieved sustainable operation with no carbon emissions. This year, we will build another 20 pairs of green service areas," said Wu Wentan, deputy Party secretary at Shandong High Speed Service Development Group Company.
The Jinan East Service Area stands as an example of China's carbon reduction push. Across the country, transportation facilities are tapping into clean energy like wind and optical energy, with facilities like expressway service areas and ports accelerating their pace of achieving zero emission or near zero emission.
In September 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the country aims to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
AI-powered system helps China's first zero-emission expressway service area manage power distribution
