Sunny roads
For solar roads, it is first of all worth mentioning that the owner of a home SES is struggling for every watt of power. It makes a variable slope design, follows the neighbor’s trees better than the neighbor itself, and blows every leaf out of the tables. But France decided otherwise. $ 5.2 million was just buried for an unprecedented experiment that just couldn’t be successful.
Why did the French Solar Road fail?
Expected 150 kilowatts a year – received 80.
When the world’s first solar road was opened, it was claimed that it would generate 150 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and provide 5,000 homes with light. But something went wrong. According to Business Insider, production did not reach 80 kilowatt hours in 2018. And by mid-2019, less than 40 kilowatt hours had been produced. What is the reason? Most likely, Normandy was chosen for the construction of the road. Yes, it is Normandy. And the fact that this is the northernmost region of France did not upset anyone, especially given that the average in the region is only 44 sunny days per year. And also often thunderstorms are dangerous for electrical equipment.
The least possible efficiency.
The area of the solar road is 2,700 square meters. With the rational use of solar panels, the same 150 kW can be easily obtained from 1000 square meters, paying for it 200 thousand dollars. In case you ordered a gold-plated inverter. That is, the difference is 2700 and 1000 square meters, and 5.2 million and 0.2 million. Although it should not be forgotten that the road itself is not cheap asphalt is also cheap. 1 km of high-quality roads can cost the same 5.2 million. But this road will be slightly wider than the sunny 2.7 meters.
Another nuance was the leaves. It turns out that the engineers simply did not know that in the fall of trees falling leaves, which covers the sunlight.
What? They will ride on it?
In three years the road was partially destroyed. The culprits of the tragedy were called local tractor operators. It is as though tractor tractors, because of their shape, have simply destroyed solar panels built into the road. The safety glass did not withstand the load and cracks. Thus, we can conclude that the sunny road is only for selected owners of cars without winter tires. In addition, the glass with a rubberized surface has less transparency, it is easily polluted, covered with scratches and microcracks.
Still, the road has to be expensive. It must be convenient for transport, safe and durable. The asphalt road is not afraid of tractors. But if there is a strong desire to use the area of the road to generate electricity, then solar panels can be placed above the road.
There are still plenty of roofs in the world
Alternative energy should be synonymous with efficiency. The sun and wind resist the atom, coal and the abuse of water. And to overcome this confrontation it is necessary to prove the advantage in efficiency. Therefore, do not hide solar panels on the roads. After all, there are still enough roofs and areas without green space.
