First ever solar panel road opens in France
First ever solar panel road opens in France
A village in Normandy has installed 2,800 square metres of solar panels on one road
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A village in Normandy has installed 2,800 square metres of solar panels on one road |
A Normandy village in Northern France has officially opened what it claims to be the world’s first solar panel road.
The 1km stretch of road in Tourouvre-au-Perche was launched on Thursday by France’s ecology minister, Ségolène Royal. It is built up of 2,800 square metres of solar panels, and officials hope it will generate enough energy to power street lighting for the village.
Around 2,000 motorists are predicted to use the road every day, which inevitably raises questions about whether the solar panels are robust enough to withstand the onslaught of heavy vehicles. The panels are apparently covered with a study resin layer, which contains sheets of silicon, although the RD5 road will have a two-year test period to gauge the success of the technology.
There’s also the issue of whether the road will be a
cost-effective use of renewable energy funds. Marc Jedliczka,
vice-president of sustainable energy group Network for Energetic
Transition (CLER), told Le Monde: “It’s without doubt a technical
advance, but in order to develop renewables there are other priorities
than a gadget of which we are more certain that it’s very expensive than
the fact it works.”
As The Guardian points out, a cycle path in the Netherlands was coated in solar panels. That stretch has so far generated 3,000kWh of energy, but the cost of building the path could have paid for 520,000kWh.
Royal has said she wants to there to be a wider rollout of solar panel roads, with an aim to install the technology in one of every 1,000km of highway. If this is the case, it may need to become a more convincing argument from a financial perspective. For its part, Colas has said it intends to reduce the cost of producing the panels.
Leave some comments...
Posted By Abayomi Ismail
source:http://www.alphr.com
The 1km stretch of road in Tourouvre-au-Perche was launched on Thursday by France’s ecology minister, Ségolène Royal. It is built up of 2,800 square metres of solar panels, and officials hope it will generate enough energy to power street lighting for the village.
Around 2,000 motorists are predicted to use the road every day, which inevitably raises questions about whether the solar panels are robust enough to withstand the onslaught of heavy vehicles. The panels are apparently covered with a study resin layer, which contains sheets of silicon, although the RD5 road will have a two-year test period to gauge the success of the technology.
As The Guardian points out, a cycle path in the Netherlands was coated in solar panels. That stretch has so far generated 3,000kWh of energy, but the cost of building the path could have paid for 520,000kWh.
Royal has said she wants to there to be a wider rollout of solar panel roads, with an aim to install the technology in one of every 1,000km of highway. If this is the case, it may need to become a more convincing argument from a financial perspective. For its part, Colas has said it intends to reduce the cost of producing the panels.
Leave some comments...
Posted By Abayomi Ismail
source:http://www.alphr.com
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