France has a plan that will make its roads as a good as gold. Officials recently announced it will construct a 1,000 kilometer-long (621-mile) solar roadway, with each kilometer capable of providing enough clean energy to power 5,000 homes. To make the street, construction workers will simply need to glue the extremely durable photovoltaic cells on top of the road without having to yank out the existing pavement. Although Paris is known for its bumper-to-bumper traffic, the average roadway is covered for only 10% of the day, allowing the solar cells to soak in plenty of sunlight. If successful, we should expect to see more solar roads in the future.
France’s road of the future will provide power to 8% of the population
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