The firm was heavily criticised for its €5m, 1km solar road in Normandy, which has become worn out prematurely and failed to meet energy expectations since it was installed in 2016.

Despite this, it was commissioned to create a 200-metre-square section of road at the Krakelshaff economic activity zone in Bettembourg at a cost of €500,000, to be borne by the economy ministry. The section includes a pavement and cycle path. There is also a photovoltaic installation on the roof of the Eurohub logistics facility.

“As with all our installations, we will have to analyse electricity production over a year to get an idea of its potential. It is from this point that the department should tell us how it intends to go further to make the site autonomous, that is the objective. To have a neutral zone in Krakelshaff,” Wattway international development director Pierre Trotobas was quoted as saying.

Wattway has some 45 solar installations globally, which it describes as laboratories.

Among them are a 30-square-metre section of road installed in Sanem in 2018 at a cost of €76,000, where Wattway will soon make a few upgrades. Sanem project manager Joseph Mathieu was quoted by Paperjam as saying that while the installation may not be profitable, “it is promising”, underlining that it was important to try new technologies.

In 2017, the country counted 6,500 photovoltaic installations, over triple the number in 2014, contributing to a fifth of total renewable energy generated by the country. New measures were rolled out in 2017 to further promote photovoltaic electricity generation, including grants of up to 20% for installations of 0-30kW and new feed-in tariffs were introduced.