Solar-powered parking lots

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/14/EDIOSO3NR.DTL

Solar-powered parking lots

Donald Shoup
Sunday, October 14, 2007

On hot, sunny days when air conditioners threaten to overload the power grid, solar power generation makes a lot of sense. Solar panels produce the most electricity exactly when demand peaks, so they reduce the load on conventional power plants at the right time. Solar panels also cleanly and quietly produce power exactly where it is consumed, so they help to prevent power outages caused by overloaded transmission lines.

Although the demand for electricity peaks on days when the sun shines brightest, solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of California's total electricity supply. But solar panels have found a promising new place in the sun on canopies above the parking lots that surround commercial and industrial buildings. The solar panels not only provide electricity for the buildings, but also shade for the parked cars.

Parking lots in asphalt-rich cities have great solar potential because the panels can be oriented to optimize power production during summer afternoons when electricity is most valuable. Google, for example, has installed solar canopies on its parking lots to satisfy 30 percent of its headquarters' power demand.

Although solar power can mitigate the increase in peak-hour power demand created by new buildings, developers rarely install solar panels above their parking lots. What can cities do to increase the use of parking lots for solar power production? One option is to incorporate solar panels into the parking requirements for commercial developments.

Cities already require parking spaces for all new buildings, and they regulate many features of the parking lots, such as the size of the spaces and their landscaping. Cities can also require that a share of the sunlit spaces be covered by solar panels to mitigate the increased peak-hour electricity demand created by new buildings.

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[Ready4Change]

1. Shade, plus power.

It's funny. Here's an example where solar can be applied, providing 2 benefits, without cutting down a single tree to make room for the installation.

Just as they can shade a parking lot, they can shade rooftops, reducing heat and AC loads at the same time they can provide power when it is most needed.

When I fly in planes I look down at all the roofs, and I think of all the potential energy not being harnessed.

I wonder, if the money being spent on developing, or later building, 'clean' coal power plants, were instead spent on installing solar PV on rooftops, how much of our growing needs would be covered?

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. That is a super idea. I love it!