World’s first solar road debuts in France
Solar power you can drive on has arrived, at least in a Normandy village in France where the first solar panel road is up and running.
From the Guardian:
A 1km (0.6-mile) route in the small village of Tourouvre-au-Perche covered with 2,800 sq m of electricity-generating panels, was inaugurated on Thursday by the ecology minister, Ségolène Royal.
It cost €5m (£4.2m) to construct and will be used by about 2,000 motorists a day during a two-year test period to establish if it can generate enough energy to power street lighting in the village of 3,400 residents.
In 2014, a solar-powered cycle path opened in Krommenie in the Netherlands and, despite teething problems, has generated 3,000kWh of energy – enough to power an average family home for a year. The cost of building the cycle path, however, could have paid for 520,000kWh.
The panels have been covered with a resin containing fine sheets of silicon, making them tough enough to withstand all traffic.We can’t imagine what the O&M process or budget is for such a concept, but we appreciate the attempt to turn non-green land into a net environmental win.
I have real concerns about the viability of this. Way back in the 70s I was involved with building an under-lit dance floor on a club in the UK. Even though on the 14 th floor enough abrasive material arrived on dancer’s shoes to significantly abrade and score the glass panels to the point that they both became opaque and some even wore significantly. While I appreciate that advances have been made in glass, I have to wonder how long these panels will last, especially bearing in mind snow, salt and grit/sand on their surfaces in winter.