Badenova, a German company that puts together systems, has opened the first PV roof for bicycles in Germany. The 287 kW plant is in Freiburg, in the southern part of the country. It is made up of 900 solar cells made by the German company Solarwatt.
The German Institute of Building Technology (DIBt) has given a general technical approval to the units in the series. So, they are seen as a controlled building product that can be used in both the private and public sectors without any restrictions. The solar panels can also be installed on the roof or on the side of a building without extra checks or security steps.
The 300-meter-long solar array is near the SC Freiburg football field, which already has a PV system that uses heterojunction modules made by Meyer Burger in Switzerland.
Badenova Warme Plus, a division of Badenova, worked with the city of Freiburg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE to build the bike path. The anchoring frames were made by a company in Freiburg called Clickcon.
About 280 MWh of energy per year will be made by the plant. Most of this energy will be used in the labs and buildings of Fraunhofer ISE. The Freiburg Institute also leases and runs the building, so it will be in charge of keeping an eye on things.
“We need to change how we think about photovoltaics so that we can add more projects like this to the cityscape. “This pilot project shows how urban spaces can be used in more than one way,” said Badenova board member Heinz-Werner Holscher.
