01 Sep 2026 — Discover Alkmaar’s Sun Powered Circuit, an interactive journey showing how renewable energy and circular renovation are integrated into everyday places across the historic Dutch city
An ice rink, a high-rise apartment block, a roadside noise barrier and a street lamp seems to have little in common. In Alkmaar, they all have a role in carrying the city transition towards an energy-neutral future. The new digital journey developed by POCITYF, Alkmaar’s Sun Powered Circuit, follows this transformation across eight sites in the Dutch heritage city, showing how clean energy and circular approaches are integrated into public and sport facilities, homes and urban infrastructure.
The scrollytelling starts at InVesta, an energy-positive expertise centre built partly from reused doors, frames, stairs and wall panels, then reaches De Meent sports complex, where around 2,500 solar panels work alongside heat pumps, batteries and underground thermal storage. Homes represents another consistent part of the circuit, which features stops at Noordertogt and its 785 solar panels installed on the roof, able to match the building’s annual electricity use, at Bloemwijk, where 52 new social homes combine solar panels, heat pumps and thermal storage with circular materials, and at Dillenburgstraat apartments, now disconnected from gas and using only district heating, solar electricity and induction cooking.
But our solar circuit in Alkmaar goes beyond buildings. Along 2.5 kilometres of roadside, a noise barrier fitted with 4,300 solar panels generates electricity while protecting residents from traffic noise, while in Alkmaar’s historic centre, a charging street lamp integrates street lighting with charging points for electric cars and boats. The circuit ends with a different kind of energy: ideas. In spring 2024, more than 70 pupils took part in Schools Reinventing Alkmaar, using Minecraft Education to design a green and liveable neighbourhood capable of producing its own energy and food. Their proposals explored renewable energy, circular materials, urban agriculture and public green spaces, giving younger generations a direct role in imagining what their city could become.
This eight-stops digital tour show how Alkmaar is embedding its energy transition into places people already use every day. The technologies differ from site to site, but the direction is shared: adapting a historic city for a cleaner future without erasing the identity that makes it distinctive.
Explore the pageflow: icons.pageflow.io/alkmaar-sun-powered-circuit
Photo credits Gemeente Alkmaar
