Skip to main content

Solaroad installed on cycle path to power roundabout, France

French road-building company Charier has introduced the SolarRoad kit (SRK) on a newly-laid cycle path in Etampes, France, that uses two SRK elements to convert sunlight to electricity and provide lighting for a roundabout. The installation helps Charier meet sustainability objectives within the framework of the Paris Agreement.
October 16, 2017 Read time: 1 min
French road-building company Charier has introduced the SolarRoad kit (SRK) on a newly-laid cycle path in Etampes, France, that uses two SRK elements to convert sunlight to electricity and provide lighting for a roundabout. The installation helps Charier meet sustainability objectives within the framework of the Paris Agreement.


The SRK has four elements of 2.5 x 3.5 meters and delivers approximately 3,500 kwh per year, which according to Solaroad, is enough energy to power an average household for one year. The technology can be applied to a business park, courtyard, square, bike path or a footpath. It can provide energy for lighting, illuminating a shop window, heating, Wi-Fi access points or, as now in Groningen, a charging point for e-bikes or mobile phones.

Related Content

  • Dubai to offer Careem bike service
    November 25, 2019
    Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) has joined forces with Careem to operate 3,500 bicycles and 350 docking stations over the next five years.
  • Cost benefit goes under the microscope
    August 21, 2017
    Conventional cost benefit analysis (CBA) of plans for urban smart mobility initiatives needs serious rethinking, according to a recently-completed European study. The three-year Evidence Project (the Project) emerged in response to concerns about the availability and quality of documented research – including CBA – required to prove that investment in sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs) can be economically beneficial. Covering 22 sectors ranging from electric vehicles to shared spaces, the Project clai
  • England prescribes bikes on NHS
    July 28, 2020
    Cycling seen as a way of encouraging healthier lifestyles amid obesity crisis
  • Sensor-based car parking, foldable container honoured at IRF awards
    May 19, 2014
    Xerox and Holland Container Innovations (HCI) are the joint winners of the 2014 Promising Innovation in Transport Award, awarded by the International Transport Forum at the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation for the transport sector with 54 member countries. Xerox receives the award for its Merge system, a city-wide sensor-based, smart parking solution that reduces traffic and congestion through guided parking with demand-based pricing. HCI receives the award for their 4FOLD ISO-certified foldabl