French company partners with government to build 1,000km of 'solar roads'

Consider a future where the electricity powering your home is generated from the many kilometers of road around your neighborhood.

That’s very possible according to French transport giant Colas which has developed a road surface covered in solar cells. Colas is now working with the French government to install 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of so-called solar roads over the next five years.

Colas calls its special road surface Wattway, and the company says around 200 square feet of the stuff can create enough electricity to power an average home. The fragile solar cells, which are usually fragile, are inserted in “superposed” layers within polycrystalline silicon. The resulting surface is said to be not only durable but grippy as well.

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The Wattway, though in development for the past five years, is only a few millimeters thick and doesn’t require existing roads to be replaced. It can be layered directly on existing road surfaces, without any need for civil engineering work. There hasn’t been any mention of how much it costs, though, and how durable the surface is.

The idea of solar roads is not particularly new. A 230-foot solar road stretch was trialed in the Netherlands in 2014 and showed better-than-expected results. Over six months, the road generated more than 3,000 kilowatt hours of electricity—enough to power a single-person household for a year.

However, until now, there hasn't been a credible solution that doesn't require the existing road surface to be replaced.

According to Motor Authority, Colas is conducting some final tests and, together with the French government, is hopeful of starting installation of Wattway in the coming months.