Coming, Solar Panel Roads Across Continents

Electric avenues that can transmit the sun’s energy onto power grids may be coming to a city near you. A subsidiary of Bouygues SA has designed rugged solar panels, capable of withstanding the weight of an 18-wheeler truck that they’re now building into road surfaces. After nearly five years of research and laboratory tests, they’re constructing 100 outdoor test sites and plan to commercialize the technology in early 2018. Researchers want to find a second life for a road. Solar farms use land that could otherwise be used for agriculture, while the roads are free. As solar costs plummet, panels are being increasingly integrated into everyday material. Last month Tesla Motors Inc. surprised investors by unveiling roof shingles that double as solar panels. Other companies are integrating photovoltaics into building facades. Wattway joins groups including Sweden’s Scania and Solar Roadways in the US seeking to integrate panels onto pavement. To resist the weight of traffic, Wattway layers several types of plastics to create a clear an durable casing. The solar panel underneath is an ordinary model, similar to panels on rooftops. The electrical wiring is embedded in the road and the contraption is topped by an anti-slip surface made from crushed glass. A kilometer-sized testing site began construction last month in the French village of Tourouvre in Normandy. The 2,800 sqm of solar panels are expected to generate 280kw at peak, with the installation generating enough to power all the public lighting in a town of 5,000 for a year, according to the company. For now, the cost of the materials makes only demonstration projects sensible. A square meter of the solar road currently costs €2,000 ($2,126) and €2,500. That includes monitoring, data collection and installation costs. Wattway says it can make the price competitive with traditional solar farms by 2020. Wattway has also installed its panels to light billboards and is working on links to street lights. The next two sites will be in Calgary in Canada and in the US state of Georgia, with plans to build them in Africa, Japan and throughout the EU in the pipeline. Researcher need to test for all kinds of different traffic and climate conditions. They want to find the limits of it. They think that maybe it will not be able to withstand a snow plow. The potential fragility joins cost as a potential hurdle.