Hanergy, Solliance Team Up for SolaRoad

Solar cell manufacturer Hanergy Thin Film Power and thin film solar research partnership Solliance signed a Memorandum of Understanding, highlighting their intention to develop a strategic collaboration in the area of integrated solar solutions for buildings and infrastructure. The first product that parties aim to bring to large scale industrial manufacturing is pavement with integrated solar cells for SolaRoad, the world’s first road that converts sunlight into electricity.
 
Li Ming, CEO of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group EME, is confident that this is the right time for this innovation. “Solliance and Hanergy see a significant potential for large scale industrial activity and application of thin film solar solutions in building and infrastructure integrated PV-products,” Ming said. “Hanergy is world leader in the manufacturing of a broad portfolio of flexible thin film solar products, among which the flexible CIGS film from Global Solar, which was acquired by Hanergy in 2013. High tech from the USA, the Netherlands and China is coming together here.”
 
“Integrating solar cells in a road is an idea that I didn’t immediately recognize as revolutionary, but in the meantime I see that if we can create a positive business case for solar energy generation here, we can do it virtually everywhere, and we are convinced that we will succeed in doing so,” Huib van den Heuvel, director of Solliance, added. “The combination of this robust and high-performance flexible solar cell material from Hanergy and industrial, roll-to-roll manufacturing strategies opens up completely new opportunities. We are seeing the start of rugged solar technology coming to the market.”
 
The Dutch province of Noord Holland enabled the start of SolaRoad in 2011, together with TNO and commercial partners Dynniq and Strukton Civiel.
 
“SolaRoad successfully piloted the world’s first prefab element-based pavement in a public test road near Amsterdam since 2014,” said Paul Rutte, manager innovations at the province. “A first trial with Hanergy technology embedded in SolaRoad prefab elements was piloted in the test road near Amsterdam in 2016. We are pleased to see that further bundling of forces is now taking place in order to accelerate the start of industrial and large scale production of solar pavement.’