What would possible block the sun from reaching these solar cells...
> I find it actually a great idea, especially with more electrical cars looking for plugs at those locations.
Oh yeah.
The futur or "solar roads" is clearly not highways and express lanes. It's slow speed, commercial areas - as badly presented by Colas.
For the context, land use in Europe is so different than in the US. Suburbs don't crawl as much and space is more of a premium.
Thinking at a really local level, for a new retail space like this: https://goo.gl/maps/BRkQ5qNyaQU2 - the fields around the center are either here to stay or would be built on.
About 80% of this commercial space is parking lots. It's wasted space. Why not use it to produce power? Why use additional fertile or constructible terrain to add solar tiles?
Since 2015, businesses in France also have to build either gardens or solar panels on their rooftops (new constructions and redevelopments). So that's turning 90% of space used into something productive or "user-friendly". Again why not do it?
The pricing of those solar tiles is interesting: 6 euros per max watt produced on location. Cheap enough - and you get free power for parking users.
It's also great PR for solar to get inserted in people's lives at such locations.
You didn't get my point obviously. Parking spaces are to park on. When a car is on a parking space, it's blocking the light from tiles under it and also casting a shadow.
> Why use additional fertile or constructible terrain to add solar tiles?
Because they won't have cars park on them. They will also be at an optimal angle and cleaner.
The example above show the paring lot partially full with a lot of space for solar panel roads: https://goo.gl/maps/ZR5kNMZYGbE2
Also, in France, we're limited in farming space. Sure, it's going to go away eventually, while we outsource farming elsewhere, but replacing fields with solar panels is not as obvious of a tradeoff as it could be elsewhere in the world.
Sheep can still graze under the panels on farmland. Not that I'm advocating, farming sheep or using green fields for solar panels!