‘Solar panel cycle path is ready to return to North Holland’

The solar panel cycle path is, as the name suggests, a cycle path with solar panels under glass plates, as you can also encounter on roofs. The idea is that you can save space in a smart way and generate energy from the sun.

Arian de Bondt of the company SolaRoad (of which the Province of Noord-Holland and TU Delft are shareholders) is trying to promote the solar cycle path, but despite the fact that sustainability is now a major theme for governments, it is not yet sold en masse. “We are already getting interested calls from home and abroad.”

Yet, De Bondt admits, the solar panel cycle path is not yet a storm. Presenter Koen Bugter wonders: why is the innovative cycle path not yet widespread in North Holland? “They are not yet convinced that it is already possible. We have a payback period of eight years, so it must be attractive. With a bicycle path of 300 meters you can supply about 45 nearby households with electricity.”

Notorious bike path

From 2014 to 2020 there was also a solar panel cycle path in our province. The municipality of Krommenie had the novelty as a test location, which resulted in a flood of news reports and interest from abroad.

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After a year the first cracks in the glass were caused by the wrong glue. De Bondt admits: “Yes, but only in the top layer, but not below it. What is here is the fifth generation, that has all been solved there. We found out, among other things, that we indeed had to use a different epoxy (glue ed.) It was a test phase and it was also allowed to break. Here it will not break after the lessons we have learned.”

Astonishing

Yet it remains astonishing for our presenter Koen Bugter that, in the current time with a strong desire for sustainable solutions, there is only one solar panel cycle path in the whole of the Netherlands.

De Bondt sees a clean task for administrators: “Which alderman or commissioner is going to take the initiative to say: let’s go for it? The eight-year payback period is short enough now. You pay a lot for electricity. cycle path, generate locally and use locally, then you do not have those high costs.”

Bamboo road signs

In the latest episode of Expedition Noord-Holland, NH Nieuws visits many more sustainable initiatives that allow us to travel cleanly, safely and quickly from A to B. For example, the Province is experimenting with bamboo traffic signs and a bicycle path that is partly plant-based.