French Energy and Ecology Minister Segolene Royal announced an ambitious, five-year program to pave 1,000 kilometers of road with Solar panels.  It's based on a pilot program in one of France's European neighbors that performed even better than expected.

The French infrastructure company Colas has developed the photovoltaic road surface called "Wattway".  Ms. Royal says the trials, to commence in the northern hemisphere's spring, will involve a kilometer stretch of Colas Wattway, which is hoped to be able to power public street lighting for a town of 5,000 people.  If everything goes as hoped, 1,000 kilometers of road will provide the juice for five million people - roughly eight percent of France's current population.  Funding isn't exactly worked out yet - Royal is proposing a hike in the petrol tax, and the solar road project might receive a share of that.

The advantage of choosing the Wattway tiles is that France will not have to tear out and rebuild the highway infrastructure.  Solar cells are inserted within a thin film of polycrystalline silicon, which is then encapsulated in a weather-proof resin substrate, and applied to the top of the existing road.  At just seven millimeters thick, they easily "ride" the pavement's thermal expansion and contraction in France's four seasons. 

In 2014 The Netherlands unveiled the world's first Solar bike path dubbed the SolaRoad, a prototype version of what France is planning.  At just 72 meters in length, it produced enough energy in six months to power a household for a year.