The Hague opens its largest solar-power plant to date

It will supply electricity to the public transport company HTM

A new eco solar park officially opened in the Hague on Wednesday, on the border of Mariahoeve and Voorburg stations. With its 5,700 solar panels, it is the largest solar farm in the Dutch city, informed the authorities. The park will supply electricity directly to the public transport company HTM.

Sustainable energy for the trams in the Hague

The panels at the new Eco-solar park 't Oor will harvest enough sustainable energy for the power the RandstradRail line (connecting the centres of The Hague, Rotterdam and Zoetermeer) between the Laan van NOI and Voorburg 't Loo stops.

The land, purchased by The Hague in 2016, is divided into 2 sites: 1,000 panels in the North and 4,700 in the South, each developed by a different company, selected by the municipality.

Helena Sustainable Innovations (HSI) is responsible for the eco-solar park on the north side of the site. Their panels will provide approximately 320,000 KWh per year, which is enough for approximately 100 households.

In addition to generating sustainable solar energy, space was set aside for farming - sheep, chickens, bees, frogs and ducks; as well as an organic vegetable garden, run by volunteers. The site is organised in a sustainable and animal-friendly manner, everything follows the permaculture principle (in this case, resilient and sustainable agriculture close to the natural ecosystems).

On the Southern side, respectively, Loolaan-Zuid, Energie van Hollandsche Bodem (EVHB) installed another 4,700 panels. They can generate more than 1.4 Gigawatt hours of electricity per year.

The scheme of the park with the two parts. Image by Helena Innovations

This means that the HTM Randstadrail 3 and 4 will be supplied with sustainable energy from the new plant. According to the municipal website to their knowledge, it is the first case that trams run on solar energy on such a large scale. The transport company and EVHB are currently investigating how solar energy can be used even more efficiently, for example by storing it in batteries.