The French media wrote about Fiasco, which befell the experimental road open three years ago in Turuvre. At that time, the project seemed very promising: 1 km of public highway was laid out with sunny panels with a shock -resistant coating. They had to generate about 150,000 kWh energy per year and provide it with road infrastructure.
The first problem of the project was a mistake with the location – to show that the energy of the Sun can be used everywhere, the road was laid in the north of the country, in Normandy. But there are only 44 sunny days a year, plus a lot of deciduous trees, and the engineers did not take into account that the foliage falling on the road blocks sunlight access to panels. As a result, by the 2018th highway, less than 80,000 kWh energy produced, and by June 2019 this indicator decreased to 40,000 kWh.
The second mistake was that the developers did not take into account the heavy tractors used by local residents. As a result, the panels were ill and began to crumble, two years later 10 % of the road had to be changed due to the inappropriateness of repair. Conventional trucks were caused by damage, and such a highway was very vulnerable to lightning and precipitation strikes. Protect panels on an area of 3000 square meters. m was difficult and, more importantly, expensive, so no actions took.
As of today, they state the panel manufacturer, practical meaning in this road is not left. But it cannot be said that $ 5.2 million. were wasted – the failure of the experiment clearly showed that such projects are inappropriate. And instead of roads, solar panels must be placed where they will be less vulnerable to various threats.
Source — Business Insider