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.

An overview of the project is presented in a new book by REMU: Bouwen op de Zon.

Information

• Myrjam Bakker-Boone
  REMU, The Netherlands
  Telephone: +31 30 297 5686.
• Case study 1 MW decentralized and building integrated PV system in a new housing area of the city of Amersfoort

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