Rennes (AFP)

Inaugurated with great pomp at the end of 2016 as "the first solar road in the world", a kilometer-long artery covered with photovoltaic panels, in a village in northwestern France, is a "failure", local authorities acknowledged on Wednesday .

"Over time, we realized that on an economic, financial, in terms of electricity production, it was a failure," said Alain Pelleray, chief of staff of the president of the departmental council of the Orne, where is located this small road which crosses Tourouvre, village of 1,500 inhabitants.

According to him, from December 2016 to March 2019, there was a production of 229 MWh, while the projected output was 642 MWh. "In concrete terms, we expected to recover, from 2017 to early 2019, 22,000 euros and we recovered 8,000 for the sale of electricity to EDF", French electricity operator, he added.

In December 2016, Ségolène Royal, then Minister of the Environment, inaugurated in front of many cameras this "first solar road in the world", financed by the State to the tune of 5 million euros excluding taxes. Ms. Royal also announced a national roll-out of this technology.

But the glued solar panels, on which the cars drive, "made noise" and were subject to "rapid wear", which resulted in a speed limit of 70 km / h on the road, explained Mr. Pelleray.

Thus, the road "will be deconstructed" by the end of the year and the company Colas (filial group Bouygues) will give "panels of new generation which, it seems, must work in better conditions", this time on a small portion, 400 m long.

"We have no regrets, the department has not incurred any expenses and we are in applied research, and in terms of notoriety, it's bingo, we have Koreans, Chinese who come, tourists and industrialists. ", pleaded Mr. Pelleray.

Following an article in Le Monde dated 23 July, which describes the road as a "fiasco", Ségolène Royal defended herself on Twitter. "Encourage companies that innovate with courage rather than denigrate them.As with all inventions, you need a prototype that is made to test and find improvements, especially since solar parking works well." Talk about all the successes "Ms. Royal wrote about this project called Wattway.

© 2019 AFP