ROAF is an intermunicipal waste company that collects, sorts, recover and recycles waste for over 200,000 inhabitants in the region of Nedre Romerike. We own and operate one of Europe’s most modern separation plants for household waste, we are responsible for seven recycling stations, one active landfill and six closed landfills across the municipalities. ROAF strives to be a forward-thinking company by utilizing renewable solar energy. In February 2020 we opened a PV power plant on the roof of our separation plant, and in February 2021 we began constructing Norway’s first two-sided and ground-mounted PV power plant.

The ground-mounted PV power plant project is a collaboration with The Solar Energy Cluster, which includes Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), Muliconsult, Solcellespesialisten, Scatec and ROAF startet back in 2016. The goal was to establish a showcase power plant that will be used for competence development, research, and development of new PV cell technology in Norway. It covers an area of approx. 7000 m², with 1,400 PV modules installed. The power plant is prefabricated, module-based and can be moved to e.g. future closed parts of the landfill, which would otherwise remain unused.

The solar park is to be a showcase for competence development, research, and demonstration of new technology. The solar panels are double-sided, meaning they collect solar energy from both the top and bottom. Additionally, they follow the movement of the sun and take advantage of the reflections from the snow in the winter. This is the first time this type of technology is being tested in Norway, and the utilization of snow reflection can result in an almost 10% increase in production. The installed capacity is approx. 540 kWp, and the estimated annual production is approx. 700,000 kWh. This corresponds to the annually energy consumption of 35 average sized households. In the future ROAF could be self-sufficient with approx. one quarter our annually electricity consumption.

The construction of the solar facilities and the transition from the use of fossil fuels to fossil-free fuel are both big steps towards the ultimate goal of ROAF becoming a sustainable and innovative company. In addition, we continue to work on energy efficiency in our operations, identifying energy leaks, and finding innovative solutions so that our total energy consumption remains as low as possible.