I take a class at my local community college. I usually park in a small lot next to the building where my class is held. A couple of weeks ago I had occasion to visit another part of the campus. As I drove around to the other side of the campus where there is a large parking lot I saw what looked to me at first glance as carport awnings thoughtfully provided by the school to help shade students’ cars from sun and inclement weather. However, as I got closer to the lot I saw that the “awnings” were actually large solar panels installed over the parking lot. There are over 3100 solar panels over the parking lot which produce 900MWh annually (enough to power 90 homes). The solar panels will save the college $300,000 over the next 15 years. The project was funded by grants and a Purchase Power Agreement. Providing shade on sunny days and shelter from snow, ice, and rain on bad weather days is just an added benefit. They also have lights underneath so the area is well lit for students returning to their vehicles after dark.
(You can see images here patch.com/… )
I had never seen an installation like this before and it just blew me away. My mind immediately went to all of the other places that could use this carport installation – places like gas stations (which usually have a canopy anyway), grocery stores, malls (those do still exist, don’t they?) and shopping plazas, the top of parking garages (so people who park on the very top will still get some protection from sun and weather), sports stadiums, and amusement parks (think of the power that Disney could generate with an installation like this over their parking lot!) and parking lots for large government agencies, and factories or businesses with hundreds of employees.
I think this is a great way to encourage the use of solar power. I’m going to contact my county and state officials and see if they would consider requiring all new building projects where it is appropriate (like gas stations and any shopping area or business with more than 100 parking spaces (may have to look into what size makes it the most economical) to include this kind of installation. If they could offer some kind of incentive to do it that would help.
I also thought about directly contacting businesses like 7-11, WaWa, Highs, Royal Farm, (the gas/convenience chains) and asking them to consider including solar panel canopies as part of their gas station design and asking existing sports stadiums and amusement parks in my area to add them to their parking lots. I think it’s a win-win all the way around. Customers benefit immediately from the shade and weather protection and the businesses benefit by lowering their electric bills. Plus we all benefit because there is more clean solar power and less will need to be made from fossil fuels.
Of course, along with the carport installations, I feel that I should also encourage my local government to install rooftop solar panels on government buildings like city halls and court buildings, schools, and libraries.
What do you think? Does anyone else feel this a local change that would be worth taking on? Is your community already doing this?