Around a thousand kilometres of roads will be covered with panels that will generate electricity for 8 per cent of the French population.
The announcement came just a few days ago, and it was Ségolène Royal herself, minister of ecology and energy, who reported it: the government intends to cover 1,000 kilometres of roads with photovoltaic panels over the next five years, in order to supply electricity to millions of French people.
According to the official website of the company Colas, the manufacturer of the technology, 1 kilometre of "solarised" road would be capable of producing the electricity needed to guarantee public street lighting for a town of 5,000 inhabitants, while once completed, the project could cover the electricity demand of 8 per cent of the French population.
The technology involves applying thin polycrystalline silicon panels approximately 7 millimetres thick to the existing road surface. The solar road — or rather the Wattway (literally "watt road") — will be resistant to heavy vehicles and capable of maintaining traction, even in rainy conditions. The company, which spent around five years developing the product and tested it in two French towns, presented the system last October. The project is very reminiscent of the first solar road built in the Netherlands last year, the Solar Road, which in roughly three months of operation produced 3,000 kWh of electricity.
Not everyone is in favour of projects of this kind. According to Craig Morris, author of the book "German Energy Transition", it is an idea that simply does not hold up, because it is extremely costly in economic terms and poorly productive in energy terms. Indeed, taking the Dutch prototype as an example, more than 3 million euros were spent on 70 metres of cycle path (almost 43,000 euros per metre, compared with 30 for a normal cycle path, source Fiab), to produce electricity for — just — 3 homes. An expense, not counting maintenance costs, that is excessive for a project described by the author himself as "pointless".
According to Minister Royal, the funds to develop French infrastructure (including solar roads) could come from an increase in fuel excise duties, which would bring the state revenues of around 300 million euros — enough to carry the project forward.