Infrastructure with a touch of SOLTECH

PUBLIC ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SOURCE OF ENERGY

In the Interreg EMR project “Rolling Solar,” seven research entities and 13 companies are working together to develop and demonstrate PV-integrated road elements and road infrastructure to generate electricity from sunlight without additional land use, while hiding the technology from view.

SOLTECH, partner of Rolling Solar

With financial support from the European Union, it explores and demonstrates how integrating photovoltaics into public road infrastructure can be made economically viable to generate renewable energy without compromising primary functions for transportation.

Rolling Solar

Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are internally connected by a total of 1 million kilometers of roads. This represents a huge area of the built environment that can be used to generate renewable energy by integrating solar cell materials into road pavements and road infrastructure.

In recent years, promising examples have already been realized where crystalline solar cells are being incorporated into bicycle paths, roads and in a wide variety of noise barriers. However, the cost of such systems is still high and reliability can be improved. This project aims to reduce costs by using flexible thin film solar panels and by integrating the solar cells more effectively and reliably. Partners along the value chain from PV production to installation and grid connection are exploring and demonstrating innovative approaches in close cooperation with regional research institutes. An inventory and exchange of regional policies, regulatory framework and building and safety regulations for electric power generation in public infrastructure is also foreseen.

Copyright Soltech SA

AN OPEN INNOVATION MODEL FOR CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION

TNO is one of the partners in the Public Private Research Collaboration Solliance and is the formal project coordinator. In addition to the Solliance research partners ECN.TNO, imec, Hasselt University (B) and FZ Jülich (D), ZUYD (NL) RWTH Aachen (D) and HELMO (B) also participate. Thirteen private companies in the value chain participate as funded partners, while others are affiliated as users or suppliers. Eight public and private stakeholders from the three nationalities are supporting the project through an advisory committee. A complete partner list can be found at www.rollingsolar.eu.

INTERREG

The Rolling Solar project is implemented within the framework of the Interreg program Euregio Meuse-Rhine (ROLLING SOLAR | Interreg Euregio Meuse-Rhine(interregemr.eu). It is funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and also financially supported by the provinces of North Brabant (NL), Flemish Brabant and Limburg and Liege (B), and by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.