Germany Launches The First Solar Bicycle Lane
Nov 14, 2018
Germany's first solar bicycle lane was opened on the 12th in the western North Rhine-Westphalia city of Eftstadt. Solar power can be used for lighting, monitoring and winter ice melting of bicycle lanes, and excess power can even be integrated into local power grids.
It is understood that this lane is about 90 meters in length and 2.5 meters in width. The ground covers nearly 200 square meters of anti-slip photovoltaic modules, and the annual power generation can reach 12 MWh. Lane design and construction were completed by a German start-up company called “Sun Mobile”.
German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said at the opening ceremony of the driveway that he hopes to promote bicycles as a healthy and attractive travel option.
The German Ministry of the Environment data shows that bicycle travel accounts for about one-tenth of the daily traffic travel in Germany. To further promote bicycle travel, the German government has funded a series of demonstration projects such as solar bicycle lanes since 2016. To date, a total of 57 projects have received a total of 87 million euros in funding.
