News is out today that two new solar bike paths have come online in the Netherlands, as reported by PV Magazine, in an initiative launched in 2018. With an impressive reported efficiency of 21% per square metre the two bike paths are expected to produce a very useful 160MWh/year of clean, quiet renewable solar power. 

Spanning 1,000 sqm in North Brabant and North Holland these two bike lanes are a great example of how, with the application of seriously out-of-the-box thinking, creativity, and imagination there are almost certainly more areas we could be leveraging as a society for the generation of renewable electricity. Indeed, academic discourse has not been without serious conversations around the potential for ‘solar highways‘ for this exact reason.

More locally we have heard of many different inventive ways that solar PV systems can be deployed in a variety of unique and exciting ways. For example, the news recently that Cornwall Council will be deploying ‘solar canopies‘ above their headquarters in Truro is a fine example of local renewable investment and innovation. Although this Cornwall Council project is expected to yield 230KWh, compared to the solar bike path project this is small to say the least. With the construction of a huge of new bike path in Cornwall from Truro to St Agnes perhaps we should be seriously looking at this innovation?

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