Germany launches the first solar bicycle lane

Germany's first solar bicycle track was recently opened in the western North Rhine-Westphalia city of Efstadt. 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.

With a total length of about 90 meters and a width of 2.5 meters, the driveway covers nearly 200 square meters of anti-slip photovoltaic modules with an annual power generation capacity of 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.

According to data from the German Ministry of the Environment, 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.