Nieuwland: A model of urban sustainability
PV Power, Issue 12, February 2000
Keywords: BIPV, building integration, built environment, integration, large-scale projects, monitoring, Netherlands, Nieuwland, ownership models, projects, roof tops, social acceptance
Whatever your feelings about PV you cannot fail to be impressed by the 1 MWp Nieuwland project, just outside Amersfoort in the Netherlands. From the multitude of innovative integration techniques to its sheer scale, everything about the project shouts out "Look, learn and be inspired!"
The
1 MW project is part of a wider new urban development that began in 1991.
Marrying sustainability with a good quality of life was seen as an important
design criterion from the outset. The local utility REMU, was one of the first
organisations to pledge their commitment to the new development and others
soon followed.
Work on the 1 MW project, which is an initiative of REMU and the Netherlands Agency for Energy and the Environment (Novem), began in 1997 and is now nearing completion. Almost 12 300 m2 of photovoltaic modules giving a total capacity of 1,3 MWp, have been incorporated into pitched roofs, flat roofs, gables and canopies, and integrated into buildings ranging from a sports hall and childcare centre, to residential houses and parking bays. This naturally required a high level of creativity to allow essentially standard modules to be used in a wide variety of designs. Modules were sourced from a number of suppliers, including Shell Solar, BP Solar, Ecotec and Colt, with inverters supplied by Mastervolt, NKF and SMA.
The project has yielded many important results, most
notably that Solar Power at the residential level is achievable, particularly
where it is included in urban planning at an early stage. Large-scale implementation
helped to bring down module costs and has provided valuable experience on
approaches for integrating the systems into the electricity supply network,
and testing of ownership models for PV (e.g. utility, homeowner or housing
association). Above all, the project is promoting social acceptance of PV
both amongst users and the building industry, and has put the Netherlands
well on the way to achieving its objective to install 7,7 MWp of grid-connected
PV by the end of 2002.