France has a way of solar energy

The $ 5 million French solar energy project at Tourouvre-au-Perche will be tested over a two-year period.

According to the Guardian newspaper, France has just launched a solar route.

The one kilometer-long special road in the small village of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy, France, is covered by solar panels with a total area of 2,800 square meters. Attending the inauguration of the new road on December 22 was French Minister of Agriculture, Ségolène Royal.

The test phase will evaluate the practical effect of whether the solar pathway provides sufficient power to the local street lighting system - (Photo: EPA).

At a cost of 5 million euros ($ 5.2 million), the solar road will be used by about 2,000 drivers each day during a two-year test to evaluate the true efficiency, see if it has. It produces enough electricity for the village's street lighting system, which has 3,400 inhabitants.

In 2014, a similar solar road was inaugurated in Krommenie in the Netherlands. The road also produces 3,000 kWh of electricity, equivalent to the average annual energy needs of a family. However, the cost of building it is enough to cover 520,000 kWh of electricity.

Prior to launching the solar route in Normandy, Colas, part of the Bouygues telecommunications group, installed solar panels at four car parks across France.

Ms Royal said that one kilometer of the French highway was installed with plates, so France had a total of about 1 million km of freeways. Flat surfaces are not as effective as slabs on sloping surfaces such as roofs.

Critics argue in France that this is not an effective way to use taxpayers' money.

They said that although they did not doubt that this was a technological advance, but to develop renewable energy sources, they thought there would be more cost-effective and efficient solutions. .