‘It could be so easy!’ is one of the statements that The Dutch company Solar Cinema wants to embody. Solar Cinema, is a mobile cinema van powered by, you guessed it, solar energy! The van has solar panels on its roof which can be loaded during daytime and power screenings afterwards. They also Robes de mariée
rent their solar system to different festivals and initiatives in Holland and abroad.
Image: Michel Boulogne
Accessible & very mobile
Prins founded the Solar Cinema in 2006 because she wanted to create a system that enabled her to screen films in an accessible and entertaining way for a broad audience. At the same time she shows how easy it can be to make the film industry more sustainable. She came across the idea after noticing a company in England that used a converted car trailer as a solar cinema system.Robes de mariée a-line Prins thought this was a brilliant idea and using her van made things even easier and mobile. She also tried using natural gas and an electric driven car, but both options were not sufficient for her goals.
Worldwide ambitions
Solar Cinema has worldwide ambitions and is already working with partners in Chili, Uruquay, Mexico and Brasil – every country has its own mobile cinemas driving around. Since there were not that many cultural events in Latin America yet compared to West-Europe, her concept caught on fast and became a huge success. The fact that there are a lot of places without electricity made the choice
for Latin America even more obvious: solar energy is such a practical solution! Governments and local sponsors were very willing to support Solar Cinema.
Solar Cinema is currently expanding its network to other countries, including Tunesia and Indonesia. They hope to create a universal label called ‘Eco cinema’ to make the solar cinema a well-known blueprint and thereby helping to bring all networks together – including companies that are doing similar things like One Way Theatre in Brighton (UK) and Cinema Solaire in Brittany (France).