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South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots
- verelo 6mo agoGreat initiative. However I am curious about the "NO USE FRANCE" text at the end of this article. Is this a licence issue or something? Would love it if someone with insight would be able to comment!
- jjmarr 6mo agoIt might be because there's a person in the photo, and France is very strict on photographing people. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Country_specific_consent_requirements#France https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Country_specific_... In terms of the formatting/brevity, Reuters was originally a wire service. They'd cover news in foreign locations and send it by telegraphic wire to local newspapers that would license the content. Telegraphs charged by the word and didn't have letter case. Cryptic in-band signals like "NO USE FRANCE" are a relic of that time. Since the link OP posted is to the B2B part of Reuters, I'm assuming they still haven't modernized this system.
- GuB-42 6mo agoIt doesn't seem to be about photographing people, other pictures don't feature people and still have the "NO USE FRANCE" tag. It seems like all pictures by Chris Jung have the "NO USE FRANCE" tag. My best guess is that Chris Jung has some kind of an exclusivity contract for publishing in France. Looking at his website, he publishes in "Paris Match", a French magazine, so it may be related.
- iyaiyadino 6mo agoIn France solar panel are mandatory over car park. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/09/france-to-require-all-large-car-parks-to-be-covered-by-solar-panels https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/09/france-to-requ...
- jld 6mo agoIt seems inefficient to put solar panels over parking areas as it requires significant amount of structure which costs a lot more than shade it creates is worth. Especially compared to how much less structure is needed on more remote solar farms. Maybe I'm just using American mindset where there is lots of open land that is good for solar generation? Perhaps not true in Korea?
- vaughnegut 6mo agoSomething like 70% of the Korean peninsula is mountainous, and a lot of the space between mountains is taken up by cities and farms. This puts flat land at a bit of a premium
- greyb 6mo agoBuilding solar panel installations in remote locations still requires linking that back to the main grid, and all the in-between infrastructure needed to transform and transmit that power. Building it in an urban location allows you to tap into the existing grid without much added public investment, similar to how some power grids will purchase power from homeowners as an added incentive for doing a home solar install.
- glenstein 6mo agoRight, they actually have siting advantages over ground mounts for that very reason. And let's not forget that they are investments, not just stranded costs (it's baffling to see them discussed that way to and down the thread). You get something back for having built them and the barrier to entry is the upfront cost, which is easier to overcome if you're a state spending on infrastructure.
- Anonasty 6mo agoThe grid connection is very trivial. Connecting panels to the grid is as simple as adding inverter. For example in many places the panels provide electricity to location itself where they are installed.
- Ray20 6mo ago
- testing22321 6mo agoThis is the kind of thing that every western ( or “rich” ) government should have mandated years ago. The best time was years ago, the second best time… We see the results of initiatives like this in BC, Canada. About 10 years ago they passed a law that when any government building is getting a renovation of any kind, public EV chargers must be built in the parking lot. The result is that every single town without exception has EV chargers now. The future is coming, despite some doing their best to slow it down.
- granolacowboy 6mo agoEven if no more energy infrastructure is destroyed from the moment of this post, the Iran war will do more to speed this up than decades of science, I think.
- tbrownaw 6mo ago> This is the kind of thing that every western ( or “rich” ) government should have mandated years ago. If it's cost effective there's no need to mandate it. If it's not cost effective but you want it anyway, you can explicitly subsidize it instead of mandating it. Does South Korea do mandated parking minimums like I hear is common here in the US? That would tell whether this is a tax on business property in general, or a tax on driving / personal mobility specifically.
- jmye 6mo ago> If it's not cost effective but you want it anyway, you can explicitly subsidize it instead of mandating it. Or, as happened in actual reality, you tell the owners they have to put it in place. Imagine that - the two weirdly specific things you came up with aren’t actually the only two options. Who would’ve thunk.
- jonhohle 6mo agoThinking about it from an individual (not business) point of view, the upfront capital won’t be repaid for 10-years or more and does little to change the value of the lot. The lot value is probably most dictated by location and capacity. Solar does nothing to affect location, and may even harm capacity. Parking lot customers might choose a lot of its shaded, but ultimately it’s a captive market due to location. If I owned the lot, I could take on no-risk (which may be why the lot was purchased to begin with), or take on a 6-figure investment that could bankrupt me if the demand for the lot vanished. (I suppose in that case you’d at least be making money on selling power back to the grid.)
- Aurornis 6mo agoThe solar covered parking lots near me are great because they also serve as cover for your car when it’s hot and sunny. It’s not the most cost effective way to install solar, though. A tall structure designed to put the panels high up in the air and leave a lot of space for cars is a lot more expensive than normal rooftop solar or even field setups. This is basically a way to force some of the cost of clean energy as a tax on parking lots. Which may not be a bad thing for dense cities where parking lots have their own externalities on the limited available land.
- eclipticplane 6mo agoA better version for shade and city beautification is to force trees around/within the parking lot.
- yearolinuxdsktp 6mo agoTree shade means bird poop danger.
- zzzoom 6mo agoImagine considering some bird poop staining the paint dangerous instead of the air pollution that's slowly killing you.
- XorNot 6mo ago[flagged]
- ceejayoz 6mo agoTake a nice big sniff. CO2 and water are odorless.
- defrost 6mo agoIf gasoline engines burned their fuel as efficiently as possible, they would produce three by-products: water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N2). Unfortunately, engines do not run perfectly, and as a result, they also produce three by-products commonly referred to as the "terrible trio" of automotive pollutants. This trio includes the following: * Carbon monoxide (CO) – An odorless, tasteless, poisonous gas, carbon monoxide can cause a variety of health problems and even death. Many urban areas experience critically high levels of carbon monoxide, especially during the cold winter months when engines take longer to warm up and run cleanly * Unburned hydrocarbons (HC) – Responsible for causing a variety of respiratory problems, unburned hydrocarbons can also cause crop damage and promote the formation of smog * Oxides of nitrogen (NOX) – Like unburned hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen cause respiratory problems and promote the formation of smog * https://www.walkerexhaust.com/support/exhaust-101/exhaust-gases-101.html https://www.walkerexhaust.com/support/exhaust-101/exhaust-ga...
- userbinator 6mo agoAuthoritarian Asian countries being authoritarian as usual. Wouldn't mind putting up panels if I could sell and use the power. But fuck governments telling property "owners" what they can or can't do.
- shaky 6mo agoA mandate for renewable energy is authoritarian now? What? This is a great initiative.
- Ancapistani 6mo agoYes, it is.
- Anonasty 6mo agoWhy cannot mandate what they want on their own parking lots? This is not about private properties.
- tbrownaw 6mo agoThe key is in the presence of the word "mandate".
- itsmek 6mo agoAuthoritarianism is a form of government characterized by highly concentrated power, limited political pluralism, and the suppression of dissent, often enforced by a charismatic leader or elite group . A mandate is an authoritative command, order, or authorization to act, typically given by a higher authority, such as voters, a court, or a governing body . So in the sense that a mandate is passed by government, and governments are sometimes authoritarian? If your logic is stronger than that you'll need to explain it to me. I'm not saying Asian countries are not authoritarian, I take no stance on that, I just genuinely don't understand how mandates imply authoritarianism.
- rswail 6mo ago
- pyaamb 6mo agopower right where its needed, plus shade for your vehicle. this is the way.
- OsrsNeedsf2P 6mo agoIf you have 80 or more slots, you have to generate at least 100 KW. As someone who has lived in Korea, this will be great for the apartment complex parking lots. That said, I don't think it's aggressive enough. Why not scale with the number of parking spaces?
- joecool1029 6mo agoMaybe some WX nerds on HN can answer, but uh... would this help with reducing convection cells that appear above large parking lots? I can look at radarscope during summer and see them roiding up over really large parking lots in my region. Do solar panels help reduce this 'heat island' effect?
- Scoundreller 6mo agoTop of my head thought: Depends on the colour of the cars and pavement. A PV will send ~20% of the light energy hitting it down the wire, the rest = heat. PVs don’t really reflect back much light for obvious reasons. The increased surface area might help it radiate more heat at night on a clear day, unless the panels are flat and then it’s no change really.
- phyzome 6mo agoIs that 20% of the solar energy, or 20% of the visible light, or some other spectrum fraction? It's easy to lose track of what part of the spectrum you're discussing.
- Scoundreller 6mo ago> The conversion efficiency of a photovoltaic (PV) cell, or solar cell, is the percentage of the solar energy shining on a PV device that is converted into usable electricity https://www.energy.gov/cmei/systems/solar-performance-and-efficiency https://www.energy.gov/cmei/systems/solar-performance-and-ef...
- OptionOfT 6mo agoThis is a great idea, whether full of cars or empty, a lot of heat is absorbed by the parking lots. Just covering them means the concrete below cannot heat up.
- 3eb7988a1663 6mo agoI was going to say, there must be some research on how much/little this impacts the urban heat island effect.
- jojobas 6mo agoSolar Freaking Roadways!
- glouwbug 6mo agoWell, destroying the entirety of the Gulf certainly is one way to make the world go renewable. Many are going to struggle, though
- luxuryballs 6mo agowell it’s certainly better than covering farmland with them like has been happening around here
- watersb 6mo agoIn Phoenix, Arizona, there are solar panels over the parking lots at since of the grocery stores. Makes a huge difference in survivability when you get back to the car. (Without huge infrastructure dedicated to car welfare, Phoenix is uninhabitable.)
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- sneak 6mo agoPhoenix as well as other similar places (such as Las Vegas where I live part of the year) have an outsized benefit from installing solar compared to normal places. We basically never have to deal with rain or clouds. Installing solar here is a total no-brainer.
- fouc 6mo agoPhoenix is uninhabitable precisely because it's entirely optimized for car life from what I heard? (i.e. massively spread out, no walkability, etc)
- AshamedBadger56 6mo agoI suspect they were mostly referring to it being uninhabitable due to the extreme heat and duration of 100ºF+ days.
- dyauspitr 6mo agoA dry 100F is fine weather. I’ll take that over a midwestern winter any day.
- disillusioned 6mo ago100F days are fine, cakewalks, even, especially with misters + shade. We had 70+ days of 110°F two years ago, and over 20 days 115°F+. They are not the same. Those days are unbearable nightmare fuel, and worse, they turn into insanely miserable nights where the low temperature rarely dips below 95°. It is absolutely awful, dry or not.
- reactordev 6mo agoThis is sane and sensible and honestly all buildings should have some shape of panels on them…
- cyberrock 6mo agoI believe solar carports of that size need to be constructed with steel, and South Korea has a significant steel oversupply issue now, so this provides a way to keep the industry going.
- rocketpastsix 6mo agoI really want America to get on board with this. Getting people to not drive is a nearly impossible task given how slow cities move to change the codes, so if we have to have parking lots, put them to use.
- dyauspitr 6mo agoWe were on board until this administration. Even then they have to be actively hostile to solar to even make a dent in the rate of uptake.
- SpaceL10n 6mo agoIf you want America on board, get the people on board. Tell them why it's a good idea to stop driving their car. I'm not saying this to be snarky, but that's what it's going to take.
- BurningFrog 6mo agoTelling me that will do nothing. You'll have to convince me!
- cheschire 6mo agoI try. But then they point to the inevitable inconvenience of not driving. Chicken and the egg. As an aside, your username reminds me it’s about time for another rewatch of cowboy bebop
- fouc 6mo agoThe problem is when the environment is already optimized for car use, when everything is massively spread out. Hard to get people to stop using cars when infra for walking is an afterthought.
- dyauspitr 6mo agoStop driving their ICE vehicle. Anti car doesn’t fly in America. People want their big spaces, privacy and most don’t want to live in cooped up apartments and spend the majority of their life within walking and public transport distance.
- bryanhogan 6mo agoSome more context as someone living in Korea right now, "cheap" cars in Korea are quite rare, especially in Seoul. Having a car is somewhat of a luxury and not needed for daily life. So I think this is trying to move some of the cost of clean energy towards those who can afford it.
- shlewis 6mo agoI wouldn't call it luxury. It's just that people don't find it attractive while living in Seoul. Average joe definitely can afford having a car.
- decimalenough 6mo ago"An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport."
- KennyBlanken 6mo ago> Having a car is somewhat of a luxury That's true in many other places, too, like many European and US coastal cities where car ownership rates aren't nearly as high as many people probably think they are.
- dyauspitr 6mo agoDoes Korea also not allow Chinese cars?
- Anonasty 6mo agoThey are allowed.
- tencentshill 6mo agoSo we should expect Kia and Hyundai cars to get really good soon, if they have direct competition undercutting them like that.
- 6mo ago
- didip 6mo agoThis is surely a good thing. The only thing better than this is to build a tall multi purpose structure on that same land AND THEN put solar panels on top of that structure.
- redanddead 6mo agosensible take is sensible, more news at 11
- Aboutplants 6mo agoThis is kind of a clever Land Use Tax by raising the cost of keeping underdeveloped land as surface lots.
- loeg 6mo ago> Under a new decree approved by President Lee Jae-myung during a Cabinet meeting on March 11, mid-to-large-sized public parking lots with 80 or more spaces must install solar power generation South Korea is going to get a lot of 79-space parking lots.
- kalleboo 6mo agoIt sounds like what's meant by "public parking lots" is "government parking lots" https://view.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2025081311085933266 https://view.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2025081311085933266
- dyauspitr 6mo agoIt’s government only. It’s not red tape.
- loeg 6mo agoWhen government makes itself less efficient, it's still red tape.
- hananova 6mo agoAny government not interested in playing those kinds of games would then swiftly change the “with 80 or more spaces” wording to “could fit 80 or more spaces.”
- thelastgallon 6mo agoNext, all surfaces of buildings must have solar panels. This hotel in India makes money from selling to the grid, in addition to their own electricity use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-AuPpqLO-o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-AuPpqLO-o
- Glyptodon 6mo agoI'd probably be okay with a law that mandated parking lots have almost anything on top, whether parks, panels, buildings, or agriculture.
- httpz 6mo agoOne important detail is lost in translation. This law applies to publicly-funded parking lots. Public parking does not mean any parking lot open to the general public in this case.
- numpad0 6mo agoFirst thing that came to my mind from title: how much flat parking lots there are in Korea, in the first place? SK has population density of 530/sqkm(1.4k/sqmi), which is literally 14x over the US(37/sqkm or 96 sqmi). So I think it's likely that a lot of their public parking locations would be already in airport style multi level ordeal, and if so, erecting solar panels can be just the matter of laying out panels on already existing and likely less utilized top floor.