Informatietype:
Project
Thema:
Solar energy on infrastructure
Unit:
High Tech Industry

SolaRoad: energy of the street

A big step towards an energy-neutral mobility system. This is SolaRoad, a road surface that captures sunlight and converts it into electricity. SolaRoad was conceived by TNO and further developed in collaboration with the two other parties from the Golden Triangle of innovation: the government and industry.

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SolaRoad langste zonnefietspad ter wereld bij Maartensdijk

Clean and safe

The idea behind SolaRoad is simple. If you’re already laying a road anyway, make the road surface transparent and place solar cells that generate energy underneath it. As is often the case, this is more difficult in practice. For example, do you keep the road surface clean and safe to cross and how do you transport the generated energy to the power grid?

SolaRoad cycle path

TNO has found a solution to all of these problems and SolaRoad is now ready for practical use. The province of Noord-Holland already has a bicycle path that successfully generates electricity. Bear in mind that in the Netherlands alone there are hundreds of square kilometers of road surface and it is therefore clear that commercial applications are possible on a large scale. SolaRoad – in which the province of Noord-Holland, road builder Strukton and technical service provider Dunniq participate alongside TNO – is working hard to achieve this.

California

In the meantime, further thought is being given to the possibility of supplying energy directly to vehicles driving on a SolaRoad, among other things. The American state of California has already shown interest. CalTrans, comparable to the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat (Department of Public Works and Water Management), is working there on an experiment with a SolaRoad.

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