In 2000 and 16, the small French town of Trouvre-aux-Perches has reason to celebrate. The world\’s first road will open here. Of course, this is no ordinary road. This road, or rather a part of it, more preciselyits surface, is made of photovoltaic panels. Yes, that\’s right. This road generates energy from the sun. Of course, the road covers an area of only 2,800 square meters, a test, but a first drink. After all, Ségolène Royal, Minister of the Environment, came to see it in all its glory. She has also declared that she wants to install a kilometer of solar for every 1,000 kilometers of road.

The total cost of the construction was 5 million eurosand the construction period was 5 years. During that time, a total of 2,880 solar panels were installed. As a result, the mini power plant will generate an average of 767 kWh per day and up to 1,500 kWh on sunny days
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The company that built this power plant, Collas, a member of the Bouygues Group, is also sniffing around. According to Le Monde, the project is nothing more than “a fiasco. Some newspapers are more scathing. So where did our French comrades go wrong?

There are several things. One of the first would be that they let the car run on the road. Compared to the laboratory test, it destroyed some panels. And the second is everything else? This is normal dirt, dust, water, and snow. Energy production was not even half of what we calculated.
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Was it a huge failure? Probably not. Even if this project was not useful and did not produce the expected results, it has merit. At the very least, we were able to identify where mistakes were made, which is a benefit in itself. Any subsequent experiments that prevent such mistakes from occurring would again move us a long way.