A 340 kW solar road is currently under construction in Normandy, France. It will be one kilometer long, with a surface of 2,800 m2, according to Michel Salion from the Colas-Wattway press team, a subsidiary company of Bouygues S.A. Although advertised on the French Ministry of Ecology website as having the capacity to deliver 17,963 kWh per day, in actual fact it will generate just 767 kWh per day. In fact, Segolène Royal, French Minister of Ecology, announced that one kilometer of the solar road will deliver enough electricity for 5,000 houses. This is also wrong. With 767 kWh per day - official data from Michel Salion - it will just be able to power 50 French homes. The cost of one kilometer of the solar road is EUR 5,000,000, which works out as EUR 100,000 per each home that is powered by the road. The erroneous statistics generated a lot of hype all over the world, however, solar experts have offered differing analysis of the project. "Solar roads in France are much less efficient, and more costly, than PV on rooftops and parking structures, and in PV power plants," commented Mark Jacobson, director of the Atmosphere Energy Program at Stanford University and founder of The Solution Project . For Jenny Chase, Head of solar analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), "French solar roads seem like a way to subsidize French companies, not a way to make electricity." Chase categorically denied the idea of solar roads popping up on four continents, ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...