The Use of Renewable Energy Sources in a Road Lane on the Example of the Network of National Roads and Highways in Poland

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The review is overall well written. However, the subject of the review is not very original. The authors did not discuss previous reviews (e.g. Transportation in a 100% renewable energy system, ISSN: 0196-8904, Vol: 158, Page: 266-285) covering some of the ideas discussed in this article. Also, authors did not directly compare costs associated with various renewable energy resources with respect to electricity.

Thus, this manuscript may not be suitable for publication in its current form.

Authors are requested to address following points in the revision.

1) There are other review articles on similar topic. Authors are requested to discuss some of those review articles in the introduction and clearly show the originality of this review article.

2) Authors need to provide technoeconomic comparison of electrical energy, photovoltaic and biomass based renewable energy resources.

The manuscript may be suitable for publication if authors properly address both points.

Author Response

1 We have introduced a review of several items of literature on the topic under review, emphasising the originality of the analysis contained in the subject of the publication. The new section introduced can be found in pragraph 55-69 . Thank you for your valuable advice

2 We have performed an economic analysis of the proposed solutions taking into account the LCOE (Levelised Cost of Electricity), prices were obtained from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and European Commission reports. The description and results of the analysis can be found in the following paragraphs 363-376

Thank you for your time and comments.

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors proposed to use renewable energy sources in the highway network in Poland.  The topic is interesting as the transportation infrastructure can be a good place to implement renewable energies.  However, the objective of the research is a survey of the potential rather than strategies/techniques of using them.  It is suggested to modify the title and make the scope clear.

In Table 1, how was the search performed?  The reviewer searched in google with keywords:

"Renewable energy source" "Road," 5,500 records were founded, including patents and citations.  Were synonyms and wildcards used?

In the literature review, solar energy, biomass, hydraulic power, and wind energy were discussed.  However, in the Results, only solar energy and biomass were considered.  To assess the entire portfolio of RES, expand Sections 2.3 and 2.4.  Otherwise, remove them for clarity; the title of the article can be revised correspondingly.

In a few tables, the source is own.  If the work is done by your group without referring to any source, the notation is not needed.

The Conclusion is better structured in multiple paragraphs to increase the reading flow.

Author Response

1 Keywords were written in a sequence separated by spaces without the use of quotation marks. Nowadays, these numbers have changed, and for the example you gave, the number is already 660,000. We have used this search method to illustrate the largest number of publications related to RES.

2 We propose to merge the two subchapters 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 into one with the title "Other types of renewable energy sources". We would like to keep these subchapters as general information about other energy sources besides those we have analysed further.

(3) We have made a note about the table captions.

Thank you for your time and comments.

Reviewer 3 Report

Remarks:

Section 1, line 29 and 30, Write out the entire phrases of the acronym the first time you use it, followed by the acronym in parenthesis.

Renewable Energy Source(RES)
Polish Zloty (PLN)

Section 2, line 122, mismatch between Table 2 caption and table contents. 

Section 2, line 122, move table caption and first row to next page.

Section 2, Table 2 does not show the panels efficiency nor dimensions, this way it is impossible to extract power, or energy, per square meter.

Section 2, Line 124, the efficiency cannot be determined from table 2. Only the absolute power is reported.

Section2, Line 127, correct "expresway" by expressways

Section 2.2, last paragraph, line 137, add a reference with global horizontal irradiation. Correct the units to kWh/m^2. The values given are the annual average Global Horizontal Irradiation only? or includes the system performance ratio (i.e. include all losses from inverters, cables, etc...)? 

Section 3, line 193, move Table 3 caption and first row to the next page.

Section 3, line 203, table 4, Clarify how the energy generated values are obtained. Namely if already include all losses from inverters, cables, etc...

Section 3, line 220, move Table 5 caption and first row to the next page. 

Section 3, line 277, translate the graph legend of figure 1.

Author Response

1 We have made changes regarding abbreviations

2. we have introduced all formatting remarks

3) Section 3, line 203, table 4 The values do not take into account losses related to equipment and network, among other things.

Section 2.2, last paragraph, line 137 This is only the annual average insolation. Reference to source in the text has been introduced.

5 Other remarks have been introduced in the text.