The Lowlands Festival takes place annually at a fixed location in Biddinghuizen. For years now, the organization has worked hard to make the festival more sustainable. Energy consumption has proven to be a particular challenge. A single Lowlands edition demands approximately 300,000 kWh of electricity, most of which are currently produced by generators. With the construction of the solar carport, the festival is making huge progress in boosting sustainability. The Lowlands festival hosts no less than twelve stages in three large areas (among which a cinema and theatre), about 250 different acts and performances, dozens of restaurants from all corners of the earth, food, and drink stalls. Solarfields – producer of renewable energy – and MOJO – organizer of large-scale events – will start realizing the world’s largest solar carport in November 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 producing around 35,000,000 kWh of electricity annually.
Jelmer Pijlman, director at Solarfields, adds enthusiastically:
“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!”
The surface area of the sustainable car park covers a total of 35 hectares, offering space for 15,000 cars. Through 90,000 solar panels, the system delivers a capacity of 35 MWp, enough to supply around 10,000 households with green energy. This is equivalent to the energy consumption of roughly 100 festival weekends annually. The solar carport will be a permanent asset at this location. The solar-paneled roof will provide cover for parked cars and generate sustainable energy at the same time. An important aspect of the design process of the carport was ensuring full parking capacity, a focus that resulted in optimal dual land use for this location.
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