Wattway panels (treehugger.com)

What do you imagine when you think of a sunny road?  Probably not anything resembling a landscape as literally solar as what you would find northwest of Amsterdam in the town of Krommenie, or soon enough in France.

A few weeks ago, France’s Minister of Ecology and Energy, Ségolène Royal, announced that the government will pave 1,000km of road with photovoltaic solar panels. This development is unique from other solar roadway projects in that the Wattway system is designed to be glued onto the top of existing pavement. In other words, there is no need to replace or remove existing road surfaces, which not only saves valuable time and money, but also reduces the amount of waste produced from the installation process. The 7mm-thick strips of polycrystalline silicon are resistant to the weight of even heavy trucks, and offer sufficient traction to prevent skids.

The company that designed Wattway solar panels, Colas, claims that 20 cubic meters of their panels provide enough to power a single average home in France. Therefore, if the program is successful it will furnish 5 million people with electricity, or about 8% of the French population.

The solar bike path in Krommenie, the first of its kind, has proven to be a mighty success since its installation in November of 2014. Let’s hope the the declining cost of solar energy illuminates the path for other countries in the near future.

Read the original article here.