Who knew roads could do so much more than serve as paths for vehicles to get from one place to another? If Japan has roads that heat up to combat snow, then France has a solar road, which was launched in December 2016 in the village of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy, France. The solar road, which is called Wattway, is only 1 km long and is composed of 30,000 square feet of solar panels–and costs €5 million. The goal of the road: to generate power for street lighting in the village. The concept is interesting, though it still remains to be seen whether this will be an effective endeavor. Its future looks bright, if the current situation of the world’s first solar road in Amsterdam is anything to go by; the solar road has been used by around 150,000 cyclists, and it’s produced over 3,000 kilowatts of energy so far. In any case, projects like this solar road can stir up a lot of interest and help people better figure out how to implement other solar projects in different, creative ways.
Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/Getty Images
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