An innovation in clean technology arrived at City Hall’s parking lot early this month in the form of a section of solar panel road.
The City of Prince George partnered with construction company YCS Holdings Ltd. to install a 20m2 segment of solar panel pavement that connects to City Hall. The electricity generated is helping to meet City Hall’s energy needs while at the same time supplying additional power for other uses such as offsetting energy requirements for the electric vehicle charging stations in the parking lot. The pilot project is part of the City’s continuing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Energy generation can be tracked in real-time and compared across seasons and environmental conditions.
The Wattway solar road technology was developed by Colas Group, a French civil engineering firm headquartered in Paris. The photovoltaic panels are fixed directly onto pavement with no need to destroy and rebuild existing roadworks. The millimetres-thick panels, which are made of a durable composite material, are robust enough to withstand vehicles of varying loads (including the weight of an 18-wheeler truck) in all types of weather.
The project was funded by YCS Holdings Ltd. and Wattway, which are subsidiaries of Colas.
-City of Prince George
