Highway A2 Zofingen: Solar power from roofing

The communal plant produces 700,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. This corresponds to the needs of around 150 households. The plant is a pioneering project for combining ecological compensation areas or agricultural use with photovoltaics. The 500-metre-long and 15-metre-wide noise protection superstructure of the freeway already served as an ecological compensation area. The use of bifacial PV modules also enables greenery to be planted between the rows of modules. Bifacial and conventional modules were combined for the system, resulting in a homogeneous daily production curve. There are no midday peaks as is usually the case with PV systems. We developed the system concept in an interdisciplinary team of environmental and civil engineers, electrical engineers and an external biologist.