The first solar footpath in the Netherlands

Big news from the city of Groningen! We are proud to announce that the city has the first solar footpath in the Netherlands. On Friday 24 March, the passage was officially opened by Philip Broeksma, vice-mayor of energy transition of the municipality of Groningen.

The solar footpath is approximately 400 square feet and has 2544 solar tiles made from recyclable plastic. The tiles are produced by the Hungarian technology company Platio and each tile consists of 4 PV cells in a plastic housing.

The footpath generates approximately 53,000 kWh of electricity annually, which will be used to power Groningen’s city hall. The solar  footpath was realised by the municipality of Groningen, BENGsolar, Koninklijke BAM Groep and Koninklijke Sjouke Dijkstra.

The city of Groningen has the ambition to be CO2 neutral by 2035: the solar footpath is hence a great step forward to achieve this goal. The innovative passage is subsidised by the Horizon 2020 project MAKING CITY,  in which Groningen is one of the two so-called “Lighthouse Cities” (model cities). For more information about the MAKING CITY project in Groningen, click here.

Source: gemeente Groningen