Towards the construction of a business model for photovoltaic (PV) roads: Creating synergies by adding functionalities

Abstract

To mitigate climate change, stepping away from conventional energy sources and focusing on renewable energy is considered a necessity. An innovation in the field of renewable energy is the application of PV roads. In literature, organisational and financial barriers are identified regarding PV roads. This research attempts to construct a business model for PV roads in order to overcome these barriers. A conceptual framework was developed to understand and assess this business model. It consists of the following six building blocks; value proposition, customers, key resources, key activities, revenue streams and cost structure. First, a base business model was composed without an additional functionality. Findings indicate that the business model for PV roads could be composed in different ways. Especially for the key activities and customer building block, different scenarios were identified. In addition, functionalities were added to overcome the barriers and strengthen the business model. It was found that static charging, inductive charging and dynamic charging via an overhead cable are the most promising functionalities to combine with the business model of PV road technology. The three functionalities are expected to contribute to the PV road business model in a way that allows synergies to arise. The findings demonstrated that static charging could be integrated into the PV road business model, as it was deemed the most promising functionality based on synergies and the value created for stakeholders. Sharing electricity cables is the strongest potential synergy, arising in the key resources building block. Several challenges are identified by combining a PV road with the static charging functionality. The four challenges that were identified are creation of a grid connection, problems with the concession, technological feasibility of PV roads and the balance between demand and supply of electricity. To conclude, it is expected that adding the static charging functionality will strengthen the business model.