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I would be curious what the arguments against solar canopied parking lots would be other than the cost of the installation (due to the obviousness of that one,
by SllX 4y ago
I would be curious what the arguments against solar canopied parking lots would be other than the cost of the installation (due to the obviousness of that one, sometimes something just costs more than it’s worth).
A parking lot on a hot day is one of my least favorite environments to walk through, and with solar cells or not, I’m surprised more parking lots aren’t at least shaded. Stick an installation up there and you could be powering the store or mall with some of that saving on utilities, maybe charging some cars and providing that all important shade. So I’ve always been curious what the arguments against it are, and the only one I can think of is the upfront cost of such an installation.
- rapsey 4y agoThe cost is pretty much it.
- adgjlsfhk1 4y agothe main one is that having giant above ground parking lots is awful in the first place. they dramatically reduce walkability and efficiency of other transit forms (by pointlessly lowering density), are ugly, and are (other than cost) way worse than underground parking or multi-story parking garages. putting solar panels on the parking lots makes them incredibly expensive to remove.
- SllX 4y ago> the main one is that having giant above ground parking lots is awful in the first place Sorry, I should have specified: I’m looking for reasons the property owner wouldn’t want to install solar canopied parking lots besides just cost. E.g. Walmart is famous for their enormous parking lots and large corporate campuses in the suburbs often have large parking lots too, as do outdoor malls. It seems to me they would stand to benefit from installing canopies with solar panels seeing as how they’ve already dedicated vast swaths of their property to parking.