Stad van de Zon (City of the Sun) is a housing and building project in

Heerhugowaard Heerhugowaard (; West Frisian Dutch: ''Heerhugoweard'', ''Heregeweard'' or ''De Weard'') is a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West Friesland. Heerhugowaard was previously a municipality, which merged ...

, The

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, based on a concept developed by Bert Smolders, then urban planner with Kuiper Compagnons, and further realized by the renowned architect and urban planner Ashok Bhalotra. The goal was and is to build homes that are directed towards the

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, and that a big part of the energy used by those homes is provided by

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

. This way, the project is to become the first

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

as well as the largest photovoltaic neighbourhood worldwide.Best practices
''Cleantech Holland'' As of 2007, about 1,500 residential homes have been completed.

References

External links

Kuiper Compagnons page on the project2017 interview with Ashok Bhalotra about the project
Populated places in North Holland Geography of Dijk en Waard {{NorthHolland-geo-stub