Day 7 of #100daysofsolarnuggets
FRANCE UNVEILS THE WORLD’S FIRST SOLAR ROAD
Alright today we are doing something a
little bit different, we would be looking at interesting happenings in the
world regarding renewable energy.
Sometime last year in December, France accomplished a historic feat, by building
the world’s supposedly first solar road, in the village of Tourouvre
au Perche , this is a small french village located north west of France.The road is just one kilometer (0.6mi) long and it is just one lane out
of the two lanes that has the solar fittings, but that still works out
at 2,800 square meters of photovoltaic cells, which they hope to be sufficient enough to power
the village's street lights.
The Road is being called “Wattway” and is expected to
produce 280 MWh of electricity a year. That being said, the project cost
an estimated $5.2million. The panels are covered in a silicon-based
resin that allows them to withstand the weight of passing cars, trucks
and the likes, If the road performs as expected, more of it's kind are
expected to be done..
Colas, the
company that installed the road, hopes to reduce the cost of the panels going
forward, they believe that the costs will go down as the technology becomes
more widespread.
Right now the road is on a two-year trial period to see if it
can withstand the pressure and effects of vehicles moving on it.
Personally I view this as a unique engineering
feat and an amazing application of solar Energy, Yes it is capital intensive and it is a lot cheaper to install Solar panels on rooftops,yet
I believe it is a welcome development, with time and with more research I do
believe that this technology would become a lot cheaper. Going forward I believe
more ingenious applications of solar such as these should be encouraged, this
way ,we create an enabling environment for solar to thrive and in the nearest
future we could have passenger planes completely powered by Solar.
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