Project objectives

The Rolling Solar project has the following objectives:

• Strengthen regional knowledge and economic clusters: by allowing companies to participate in the project in different ways: 

  1. as a subsidised partner;

  2. by contributing in-kind by supplying materials, functional elements or expertise without formally participating in the project;
  3. ​and by participating in workshops set up for the purpose of exploring or sharing technical, legal and economic aspects associated with solar energy generation in public infrastructure. 

  Universities involved in pure research and universities of applied sciences participate as partners or via research assignments for students. The project will be implemented in close collaboration with local authorities in order to maximise the impact it has on current and future demonstration projects associated with PV integration in public infrastructure, particularly in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

• Develop technology, formulate design specifications and demonstrate production methods: for producing PV systems integrated in road and construction elements for road infrastructure; on a scale of several metres and for future large-scale implementation projects in the field of public infrastructure.

• Develop PV integration methods: that do not adversely affect the primary functions of the road surfaces and street furniture in terms of safety, lifespan (> 5 to 15 years, depending on the type of road surface) and maintenance. 

• Install and compare 3 types of innovative noise barrier-integrated PV arrangements: on a demonstration scale of 6 metres in a controlled outdoor environment; bifacial crystalline silicon PV, semi-transparent thin-film PV, and thin-film CIGS with an attractive surface finish. This also involves installing and comparing two types of road element: crystalline silicon and thin-film CIGS. Furthermore, several existing demonstration systems, developed in earlier and parallel projects, will be monitored and evaluated.

• Validate and promote large-scale application in public infrastructure: the aim is, firstly, to initiate infrastructure-related (demonstration) projects in which PV integration concepts developed within Rolling Solar can be applied in the public domain. Secondly, the project is intended to produce economically marketable products based on the technology and concepts developed for infrastructure-integrated PV. This will be achieved by defining specifications, analysing the cost of ownership, defining IIPV production methods and product applications, generating test results and raising public awareness.