It may not be the yellow brick road, but it did cost $5 million for the first kilometer. The solar road is part of a promise the French government made to build 1,000 km of solar roads over the next 5 years.
The 1 km of solar road made its debut in the Normandy village of Tourouvre-au-Perche.
Image source
The 1km stretch of solar road is to produce enough energy to power the city's streetlights. The solar road is estimated to be driven by 2,000 motorist per day on average.
The $5 million per kilometer cost of the solar road is expected to drop for subsequent builds as the technology is more widely accepted. The current cost is 13 times more expensive per kilowatt-peak than rooftop solar panels.
Next up are solar road trials in the Marseille Fos port and a stretch of Brittany's Route 164.
Commentary
I will be interested to see how the solar road holds up over the next year and what maintenance is required.
Full Article
Expensive Solar Road Technology Makes First Appearance In France, 23 December 2016
My wife has been going on and on about solar roadways ever since she first heard about them, she'll be well pleased that someone has finally gotten around to laying some at last.
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As stated in the article, the roadway is just sitting there and making it a solar roadway doesn't take up anymore real estate. I think it does make sense in areas where there is not a lot of real estate. But with the cost being 13 times more than solar rooftops, it may be wiser to spend money on Tesla's solar roof technology first.
I commend France's commitment to turning 1,000 km of roadways into solar roads. This will at least help the technology get further down the road (pun intended) and hopefully further improve the technology and bring down costs. The article did not state the cost difference between putting in a traditional roadway versus a solar roadway.
Thanks for commenting!
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Mike
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What a colossal waste of money. You could put in a ton more solar panels next to the road for the same price. And you would have cars on them blocking the sun.
Also, I want to see the rest of the structure! There are a lot of things missing from this picture that every solar panel installer knows. So, where are they?
And! Its 13x as expensive, meaning 13x more edge of road could have been done for the same price. But what about maintenance? I bet it cost 13x more for maintenance each year too.
Why don't they just cover parking lots? Shaded car parking places for free.
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I understand your arguments, but realistically we should be putting solar panels on everything that gets sun, and with the advent of flexible plastic panels and Tesla's solar tiles, this is getting to be more of a possibility with every passing year.
It's only through government initiatives such as this however that the technology will be subsidised and become cheaper.
As @etcmike says, this does not take into account the difference between laying a km of solar roads vs a km of bitumen roads. And there's only so much roof top space that they have access to.
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I was placing flexible plastic panels and other solar roofing materials on houses 20 years ago.
There is a lot more roof then there is road. It is just that we spend so much time on roads that they seem to be large... and often just a waste of space.
When choosing where to place solar panels, uninterupted sunlight is the most critical constraint.
Roads are not uninterupted sunlight. And that is just the worst thing about placing panels on a roadway. Then there is heat expansion, burying all the inverters and panel connections. Having to dig up the roadway whenever a connection gets broken. And, if you actually solar panel the whole roadway, you need to put a high voltage line all the way along the roadway too.
And I do not agree that govern-cement subsidies help, at all.
If they really wanted to help, they would get rid of half of the stupid regulations they have on solar power. And, I MEAN STUPID. You think this freedom of speech thing is bad? You should read the regulations on solar power. Such as, to truly be in compliance, if you have a solar roof, you need to have a million dollar bond with PG&E as the payee.
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Roads are something that we need to build. If we can develop the technology to a point where with the return on investment (ie the energy they produce that doesn't have to be generated and shipped from somewhere else) minus the expense of maintaining them, and their environmental impact is less than the technologies (carbon cost of bitumen roads and coal energy) which they displace, and the total cost can be reduced so that if they are as cheap to lay down as a conventional road and have a lesser impact on the environment, what is the harm?
Nobody's saying they should choose between the differing solutions either, they should put solar panels on all the things. They do need to investigate it and see what's what, though. If they investigate it and think that it's feasible, then the only way they can really work it out is if someone tries it. France is trying it. If it works it'll spread to the rest of the world. If they cock it up, everyone will point and laugh.
I guess to a large extent it depends on what the subsidy is, investing in developing good new technologies (as long as it isn't one of those shady under-the-table handshake type deals) even if it comes at a high price can have enormous potential for developing those technologies to a point where you can overcome most of their shortfalls.
Infrastructure investment and R&D efforts made by governments also can have a massive net positive effect on the economy, especially when it's done right, but even to a lesser extent when they completely mess it up.
Economies work best when the money flows freely. Spending the money they collect back within the economy is one of the great ways a government can help free up this money and as long as most of the money is not going offshore, even spending millions of dollars a kilometre can have a mass positive effect on the development of new technology, and stimulating job creation.
Those people who get the newly created jobs and training in advanced technologies are now spending their money, and paying new taxes, and using their knowledge for the advancement of that technology within the country.
And the companies that are producing the new technologies are now exporting that to the world and getting import dollars. Eventually the government gets back it's 5 million dollars a km, many times over, and they got a head-start on the rest of the world, cause now if we want solar roadways, we can either spend $5m/km developing it ourselves or import it from France.
I think getting rid of stupid regulations is something we can all agree on. I'm pretty sure we don't have those particular ridiculous solar regulations over here down-under, but I'm equally sure we have equally stupid regulations elsewhere that we could easily do without.
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I disagree completely. You have bought govern-cement propaganda, hook, line and sinker. The #1 think holding back alternative energy? GOVERN-CEMENT. The #2 holding back solar energy? GOVERN-CEMENT...
This solar roadway was a production in wasting money for the least benefit.
What will be found is that this is a poor roadway AND a poor electric producer. It was doomed from its inception.
And, for the same price, they could have built one of these.
https://steemit.com/energy/@builderofcastles/a-solar-powered-electrical-plant-that-could-be-built-right-now-from-parts-on-alibaba
Giving much better power, continuously all day, with much less maintenance.
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If I was a French taxpayer, that would be my criticism of the project. Expanding the use of Tesla's new rooftop systems would seem to be more economically feasible.
Being a U.S. taxpayer and a contractor, I have seen the U.S. government spend $20 million and receive absolutely nothing in return. You would think that would upset a U.S. taxpayer.
It will be interesting to see if this article (project) gets comments from French citizens.
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Mike
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I hope this investment will end up making them money.
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As a proponent of economical renewable energy, I do think that exploring different options for employing renewable energy solutions need to be explored. If industry does not do it, then government research may need to be used.
You have to start somewhere. Just like the first photo-voltaic was extremely expensive, the price has come down substantially over the years. It could be the same for solar roads.
I do think this idea of solar roads needs to be studied before going all in.
Thanks for your comment!
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Mike
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Wow this is really innovative! Would this be called a "smart-floor"?
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If economical it would be great for a driveway or patio that is in the sun. My driveway is not shaded by cars 99% of the time.
There is a "smart-floor" concept but it is very expensive. I am not sure if it incorporates solar power generation.
I remember seeing an article where lighted programable road-markings could be incorporated into a "smart-road" that was solar-powered too.
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Mike
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WoW, 13 times more expensive than rooftop?, OUCHHHHH.
Great article, thank you!
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nice to know upvoted.
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