The first segment that forms part of the Wattway road, which is a 0.6-mile stretch, began operation last week in Normandy. This road is scheduled to be inspected over the next two years. As per the French Ministry of Environment, Energy and the Sea, it is expected to produce enough electricity to power the city of 5,000 people. The Minister of Ecology and Energy announced that France would lay 621 miles of roads with solar panels in five years to provide inexpensive and sustainable energy to five million people.
They are known as ” the Wattway,” The roads will be constructed in partnership with French road-building firm Colas and The National Institute of Solar Energy. The company has spent the past five years creating solar panels that measure approximately a quarter-inch thick and are strong enough to withstand heavy traffic on highways without breaking or making roads slippery. David Rogers reports for Global Construction Review. The panels have also been designed to be placed directly over existing roads. They are, therefore, relatively affordable and accessible to put in without the need to tear down the existing infrastructure.
“There is no need to rebuild infrastructure,” Colas CEO Herve Le Bouc told Myriam Chouvot for The French journal Les Echoes in 2015. “At Chambery and Grenoble, was tested successfully on Wattway a cycle of 1 million vehicles, or 20 years of normal traffic a road, and the surface does not move.”
The panels are constructed of a thin silicon polymer film coated with an emulsion to reinforce them and make them more slippery. Since the panels are light, they are able to adapt to minor variations in the surface pavement owing to temperature fluctuations and are sealed tight against weather conditions, Fiona MacDonald reports for ScienceAlert. Colas says the panels are also snow-proof, but plows must be more careful not to pull the boards off the surface.
France is one of many countries to consider paving its roads using solar panels. In November 2015, the Netherlands presented a 229-foot long bicycle track lined with solar panels to testing ground for future projects, and two people in Idaho raised more than $2 million through crowdfunding in 2014 and were awarded a two-year contract with the Federal Highway Administration to develop their solar-powered roads, Rob Wile writes for Fusion. But, this is the first time a solar panel has been created to be placed directly over roads already in place and the first time a project has been designed to put the panels on public highways.
Many environmentalists think that paving roads with solar panels is ideal. Colas claims the 215 sq ft of Wattway could provide enough power to give power to one French residence (aside from the heating); however, some researchers are skeptical that solar roads will ever be practical and cost-effective enough so that they can compete with conventional rooftop solar panels MacDonald writes.
It will be difficult for photovoltaic glasses to compete with asphalt, which is a lot cheaper. Moreover, rooftop panels are better positioned to capture the maximum amount of sunlight, according to researcher Andrew Thomson wrote for The Conversation. Thomson also states that if solar roads become more slippery than conventional roads, the safety issues could end the technology gaining momentum regardless of the amount of energy it can generate.
“For solar roadways to be effective, it needs a complete technological rethink,” Thomson wrote.
French authorities are going forward with the project and will begin laying sections of Wattway in the coming spring.