Renewable Energy Innovation Park - Solar Highway

Founded in 2017, the purpose of the Landfolge Garzweiler association is to develop the area directly surrounding the Garzweiler lignite opencast mine by adopting a future-oriented approach. The area comprises the five surrounding municipalities of Mönchengladbach, Erkelenz, Grevenbroich, Jüchen and Titz. To continue the tradition of this energy-producing region even after the end of lignite-fired power generation, a new Renewable Energy Innovation Park is to be established with the aim of creating an integrated energy system to generate, store, distribute and uses energy at scale.

The first of these subprojects is a "solar highway," which will be developed from planning to implementation with the support of a feasibility study. What’s more, the study is designed to help transfer the solar highway concept to other regions in Germany as well as to areas along the highways. This will involve a comprehensive examination of the technical, regulatory and economic aspects of the integration of photovoltaic systems on and along windbreaks, noise protection and embankment systems over a stretch of around 30 kilometers.