Krommenie, North Holland, Netherlands

SolaRoad opened a 72 m solar cycle path in Krommenie in October 2014 (later extended to ~90 m), operated by the SolaRoad consortium (TNO, Province of North Holland, and partners). Because the load was limited to cyclists, the path survived better than road-embedded PV pilots and generated ~9,800 kWh in its first year (~3 households). However, the protective top coating cracked and required early replacement, output per m² was roughly half that of conventional rooftop systems a few kilometres away, and installed cost was ~US$1,000–1,400/m², implying a payback of many decades. A 'bad road surface' warning was posted in January 2020 and the path was ultimately removed. The case demonstrates that reducing axle load improves durability but does not close the orientation penalty or cost gap versus rooftop PV.