The first sun route in the world opened in France – The Express

2800 m2 of tiles for more than 5 million euros in grants. The first road solar in the world is inaugurated on Thursday, December 22, by the minister Ségolène Royal in the normandy village of Tourouvre. Now, some 2,000 motorists who use it every day at the RD5 out of the village will run on solar panels stuck on the roadway for another kilometer.

the tiles look like tiles laminated should be able to produce the equivalent of the public lighting of a city of 5000 inhabitants, according to the direction of Wattway, the project co-invented by Colas, a subsidiary of Bouygues – and the CEA Tech. They are made by the Scop SNA Tourouvre. According to the county council, all work is covered by a State subsidy of 5 million euros before tax.

A slab Wattway manufactured by Colas

Joachim Bertrand / COLAS

For a few months, the concept is already being tested on four pilot sites: two in the Vendée, in Septèmes-les-Vallons, near Marseille, one in Yvelines, on car parks, or in front of public buildings. The surfaces are much smaller, from 50 to 100 m2 of tiles solar.

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la Roche-sur-Yon, for example, since June, “almost every weekend of electric cars come to charge their battery to the terminal of the sports complex and cultural Vendéspace, powered by 50 m2 of slabs in the sun.

A sun route in Magny-Les-Hameaux in Yvelines

Joachim Bertrand / COLAS

The photovoltaic cells have not moved. It works perfectly well”, says the mp, the LR of the Vendée Alain Leboeuf, who also chairs the Union county energy (Sydev), a partner in this experiment. Also, the slabs could contribute to the areas of highways, or the isolated houses.

each time, the concept is to stick to on the road solar panels protected by a resin to produce electricity. Advantage: the production of electricity does not interfere person on these surfaces, which are on average occupied by cars that 20% of the time, according to Colas. With a million kilometres of roads, France could in theory have access to the energy independence by tiling the quarter, emphasises the company.

A high cost, an economic model to find

Except that the panels are flat and produce less electricity than panels tilted. To “300 kWh installed”, and the slabs Wattway produce 5 to 10 kW of less,” roofing, according to the director of Wattway. The skeptics are also waiting to see if the panels will stand up actually, with the time, outside the laboratory, the passage of heavy vehicles and weather.

above all, the economic model remains to be find: “today Wattway is 17 euros per peak watt -a unit of measurement of the solar power – connected”, added Jean-Charles Broizat, compared to 1.3 euro for the solar in the great roof.

But Wattway account “join” the price of production of the conventional solar by 2020. A target “ambitious” but “realistic,” according to Colas. Because the cost of production of solar energy classic was decreased by 60% between 2009 and 2015.