The Netherlands’ Solar-Powered Bike Paths

Picture yourself immersed in Van Gogh’s dream-like Starry Night landscape, pedaling along through swirls of stars — you’ve just pictured yourself on the Netherlands’ brand-spanking new solar-powered bike path. Now picture yourself pedaling along a bike path that soaks up the sun’s rays by day, and converts them into enough energy to power two homes — that would be a second Dutch bike path.

Besides being spectacularly cool, the Dutch solar-powered bike paths are first of their kind. The 100-meter stretch of road on the outskirts of Amsterdam, between Krommenie and Wormerveer, is the world’s first roadway that functions as an energy source, harvesting solar energy and feeding it back into the grid. The bike path is a study to see how productive the technology can be, with an eye toward implementing greater stretches of roadway in the future.

Ok, so they are only 70 meters and 1,000 meters long, respectively. But the Dutch have made a commitment to reduce carbon emissions and it seems there are a lot more solar-powered roadways in their future.

The Van Gogh-Roosegaarde Bike Path, named for the artist who inspired it and the designer who created it, is coated with a special paint that gathers energy during the day and glows after dark in patterns inspired by the Dutch post-impressionist painter. Roosegarde says, “It’s a new total system that is self-sufficient and practical, and just incredibly poetic.” The Starry Night bike path is located in Nuenen, where the artist was born.

Both paths opened the same week in November. A similar initiative has sprung up in the United States.