As "Russkaya Germaniya" writes, the strip producing electrical energy, about two meters wide, stretches for approximately one kilometer and is capable of generating enough current for street lighting of a small town with a population of 5,000. This is the world's first practical attempt to place batteries on the roadway of a highway, made possible by the latest technological developments of specialists from the National Institute of Solar Energy and the experience of builders from the company Colas. The project initiators believe that panels only a few millimeters thick laid on the roadway can withstand the weight of even trucks for a long time.
The Minister of Energy and Ecology, Ségolène Royal, took part in the opening ceremony of the road section. She noted that the new method of using photovoltaics allows generating electricity without using additional space, which is not always possible to find, since suitable land plots are most often agricultural land. The minister also reported that the state, interested in such environmentally friendly developments, supported the project by investing five million euros in it.
According to Royal, this will not be the last such project in France: energy routes are already planned in Brittany and in the port of Marseille, which seems more logical, since there are four times more sunny days in the south of the country than in Normandy. The minister also reported that some foreign countries, primarily from North Africa, are showing interest in the development based on French patents.
However, some experts are skeptical. According to the renewable energy association SER, the electricity obtained by using panels as road surface is almost 13 times more expensive than with traditional methods of their use. The inclined placement of batteries is much more efficient than their horizontal laying, and the potential of free roofs of residential buildings, public buildings and industrial facilities is so great that from an economic point of view, placing solar panels on roads makes no sense at all.
Critics also note that the working area of road panels will be periodically blocked by passing cars, which will reduce their efficiency. On the other hand, according to Colas, access of light to them during traffic will be open 80% of the time, so this factor will not have a significant impact on energy generation.
The first months of operation should show whether the panels will withstand constant load without compromising the production task. Moreover, the reports from France do not address the issue of road safety at all – for example, how solar batteries under wheels affect the braking distance of a car in different weather conditions. So the question of whether their use will become a mainstream or a dead-end direction in energy will become clear later.