France starts construction on pilot solar road project

France's Ecology Minister Segolene Royal on Monday officially broke ground on a pilot solar road project in Tourouvre, the Orne department, in north-western France.

The investment is valued at EUR 5 million (USD 5.45m).

La route solaire s'inscrit dans la #TransitionÉnergétique : promesse de #CroissanceVerte, création d'emplois, innovation technologique 🌍 pic.twitter.com/RGwf2K4Qxd

— Ségolène Royal (@RoyalSegolene) October 24, 2016

The one kilometre (0.62 mile) long solar road will use the Wattway solar road tiles made by local transport infrastructure company Colas.

Wattway is composed of photovoltaic cells inserted in superposed layers that ensure resistance and tire grip. The composite material is just a few millimeters thick, making it possible to adapt to thermal dilation in the pavement, as well as vehicle loads. The technology can be applied directly on existing pavements, without any need for civil engineering work.

Wattway is a patented French innovation which came into being after 5 years of research jointly led by Colas and INES, the French National Institute for Solar Energy.

When completed in just a few week, the solar road will be connected to the grid. It is expected to produce some 17,963 kWh every day which would be enough to power the public lighting for a town of 5,000 residents.

The performance of the pilot project will be actively evaluated over the next three years.

(EUR 1 = 1.089)

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