The first kilometre of solar road was inaugurated in France on 22 December. It is a stretch of the departmental road running through the commune of Tourouvre-au-Perche, in Normandy. Those who drive along it will roll their tyres over a expanse of photovoltaic panels instead of asphalt.

"The solar road, an example of energy transition"

The ribbon of the first solar road on French soil was cut by Environment Minister Ségolène Royal, who described it as "a concrete example of energy transition", capable of guaranteeing "green growth, job creation and technological innovation". The idea is not, in fact, new: it was first put forward about ten years ago by an American couple from Idaho, Scott and Julie Brusaw, who had founded the company Solar Roadways. A number of other experiments have since been carried out, but the Normandy project is the largest ever completed in the world.

Strada solare Ségolène Royal — French Environment Minister Ségolène Royal. The government allocated five million euros for the construction of the first kilometre of solar road ©CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images

The project was promoted by the company Colas (Bouygues group) and the National Solar Energy Institute, together with the University of Savoy. The infrastructure comprises 2,800 square metres of photovoltaic panels in the form of "tiles" glued to the ground and coated with a special resin that enables them to withstand even the weight of the largest lorries, while providing the same grip as asphalt.

Costs still high compared to conventional photovoltaics

The electricity produced is fed directly into the local distribution network: a single kilometre of solar road can cover the public lighting needs of a town of five thousand inhabitants. The problem, however, remains the cost: the system was designed and built thanks to a rather substantial investment of five million euros, allocated entirely by the French state.

strada solare Francia — The first kilometre of solar road was inaugurated in France on 22 December ©Frederic Stevens/Getty Images

This means that the government's announced plan to build one thousand kilometres of solar roads across the country would require an investment of five billion euros. On this basis, photovoltaic panels installed on rooftops or on the ground remain, to this day, considerably cheaper. The promoters of the initiative, in any case, already have around a hundred small experimental projects in the pipeline, half of them in France and the rest abroad. And they say they are confident that, in the coming years, they will be able to bring costs in line with those of conventional photovoltaics, with a view to commercialising the system on a large scale.

France inaugurates its first kilometre of solar road