Start putting solar canopies over all these goddamn mostly empty parking lots we have everywhere. Completely wasted space otherwise and it’d provide some cover from the rain for people coming and going from their cars.
Possibly? But either way, cooling the panels will increase their service life with a slight net increase in output as well. It should reduce the heating of parking lots by as much of the power it makes.
This is one that seriously gets me as to why we don’t do this more, it would make so much sense. Obvious benefits are power generation, but also when you consider, it would significantly reduce how scorching hot large carparks get in the sun, depending on the style of the solar canopy being built it could also massively reduce the amount of water flow onto the ground reducing some wear on the tarmac in addition to some hazards.
Also for places like the UK where we typically don’t have huge amounts/extended periods of snow, as long as the canopy is sufficiently designed for the additional weight, you could ameliorate the need to salt the car parks, once again increasing the life of the tarmac.
It would also keep people’s cars much cooler, in the sun, and make things generally a lot cooler below the canopy.
That’s where a properly functioning government would be able to step in. Parking lot taxes are going up x%, but if you install solar panels, you get an x% tax break.
That and add a steep tax for single purpose solar fields.
It’s not that it’s too hard to maintain, but that in order to make sense it would have to be cheaper than building and maintaining the solar panels on some larger and less valuable patch of land 30 minutes out of town.
Start putting solar canopies over all these goddamn mostly empty parking lots we have everywhere. Completely wasted space otherwise and it’d provide some cover from the rain for people coming and going from their cars.
Plus you’d lower the temperature of the vehicles, reducing air conditioning and decreasing fuel/battery use, which would further decrease emissions
No one ever brings this up, but the heat island effect might be diminished? Not sure how the math works out there.
Possibly? But either way, cooling the panels will increase their service life with a slight net increase in output as well. It should reduce the heating of parking lots by as much of the power it makes.
Or abandon the min parking reqs so developers can build something else there. But also solar panels where we actually need parking space
Yeah, build something other than a parking lot, and put a solar panel on top of that! 🧠
Most of those minimum parking requirements are based on bullshit anyways.
This is one that seriously gets me as to why we don’t do this more, it would make so much sense. Obvious benefits are power generation, but also when you consider, it would significantly reduce how scorching hot large carparks get in the sun, depending on the style of the solar canopy being built it could also massively reduce the amount of water flow onto the ground reducing some wear on the tarmac in addition to some hazards.
Also for places like the UK where we typically don’t have huge amounts/extended periods of snow, as long as the canopy is sufficiently designed for the additional weight, you could ameliorate the need to salt the car parks, once again increasing the life of the tarmac.
It would also keep people’s cars much cooler, in the sun, and make things generally a lot cooler below the canopy.
“Its too hard to maintain.”
“What if someone hits the pole holding up the panels?”
“It costs more than clear cutting a forest to put the panels in.” (True story)
Lots of bullshit reason.
That’s where a properly functioning government would be able to step in. Parking lot taxes are going up x%, but if you install solar panels, you get an x% tax break.
That and add a steep tax for single purpose solar fields.
It’s not that it’s too hard to maintain, but that in order to make sense it would have to be cheaper than building and maintaining the solar panels on some larger and less valuable patch of land 30 minutes out of town.
There are very few land uses more worthless than a surface parking lot.
I work in municipal development.
If it costs a quarter-penny more to build a better product, a developer will do anything they can to avoid it.
I’ve had them flip out and demand to the City Manager that I be fired because they had to paint parking stripes. More than once.