Olivia PowellSolarfields, a producer of renewable energy, and MOJO, an organizer of large-scale events, will start work on the world’s largest solar carport in November of this year.
The solar park will be built in the Lowlands car park and will cover an area of 35 hectares. The solar carport will be operational in May 2021 and consists of 90,000 solar panels which will produce around 35,000,000 kWh of electricity annually.
Director at Lowlands, Eric van Eerdenburg, said: “Without swift and concrete measures our young visitors will experience the effects of climate change and environmental pollution in their daily lives.
“As a festival organization we want to be part of the solution and contribute to an optimistic view of the future. We hope to be a source of inspiration for our visitors to play their part – no matter how small – in making the world more sustainable.
About 12 years ago we started research on how improve sustainability within our business operations. Actualizing this together with Solarfields on a large scale is a long-held dream come true.”
Director at Solarfields, Jelmer Pijlman, added: ”Over the past 2.5 years, we have worked hard with MOJO to address all challenges involved in a project of this magnitude. We were fortunate to get a great deal of authority support along the way and think it is fantastic that we can announce this now. The location is perfect for making The Netherlands more sustainable and this project is a wonderful example of multiple land use: parking and sustainable energy production in the same space!”
Ton van Amerongen, alderperson in the Dronten city council, said: “Lowlands has already proven to be an event with enormous social commitment. The fact that we can contribute to meeting our climate objectives with the festival organization and Solarfields is fantastic.”