{"id":88146,"date":"2015-02-03T17:37:57","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T17:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=88146"},"modified":"2015-02-03T17:38:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T17:38:43","slug":"best-idea-long-time-covering-parking-lots-solar-panels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=88146","title":{"rendered":"The best idea in a long time: Covering parking lots with solar panels"},"content":{"rendered":"

America is a nation of pavement. According to research\u00a0conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, most cities\u2019 surfaces are 35 to 50 percent composed\u00a0of the stuff. And 40 percent of that pavement is parking lots.<\/p>\n

That has a large effect: Asphalt and concrete absorb the sun\u2019s energy, retaining\u00a0heat \u2014 and contributing to the \u201curban heat island effect,\u201d in which cities are hotter than the surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

So what if there were a way to cut down on that heat, cool down the cars that park in these lots, power up those parked cars that are electric vehicles (like Teslas), and generate a lot of energy to boot? It sounds great, and there is actually a\u00a0technology that does all of this \u2014 solar carports.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0just what it sounds like \u2014 covering up a parking lot with solar panels, which are elevated above the ground so that cars park in the shade beneath a canopy of photovoltaics. Depending of course on the size of the array, you can generate a lot of power.\u00a0For instance, one vast solar carport installation at\u00a0Rutgers University\u00a0is 28 acres in size and produces 8 megawatts of power, or about enough energy to power 1,000 homes.<\/p>\n

Solar carports have many benefits, ranging from aesthetics (yes, the things look very cool) to subtler factors. Like this: Not having\u00a0to return to a hot car after spending three hours at the mall or a sporting event in the summer. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency\u00a0and Department of Energy, being able to park in the shade in the summer is actually a substantial contributor to increased vehicle fuel efficiency, because it saves having to cool your car back up by cranking the air conditioner.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the downside here? And why aren\u2019t solar parking lots to be found pretty much everywhere you turn?<\/p>\n

In a word, the problem is cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most expensive type of system to build,\u201d says Chase Weir ofTruSolar, which rates\u00a0solar projects based on financial riskiness. \u201cA lot more engineering, a whole lot more steel, more labor, and therefore, it\u2019s a relatively small percentage [of solar power]\u2026but it is growing, and the cost to install a solar canopy today is less than the cost to install a rooftop just a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there aren\u2019t all that many right now. According to Scott Moskowitz of GTM Research, which released a study of the sector last year, by the end of 2014 there were an estimated 600 megawatts (or 2.5 billion dollars) worth of solar canopies installed in the U.S. In energy terms, though, 600 megawatts isn\u2019t a very big number. Just consider: The Hoover Dam has a capacity of\u00a0more than\u00a02,000 megawatts, the\u00a0world\u2019s biggest coal plant\u00a0is close to 6,000 megawatts, and even the\u00a0world\u2019s largest solar plant\u00a0is 550 megawatts.<\/p>\n

So at least for now, the market remains relatively niche. The carports seem to be particularly popular with large companies, which can afford\u00a0them and where they can provide an impressive display at\u00a0their corporate campuses. Thus, they\u2019ve been installed by Munich RE, Dow Jones\u00a0& Co., and Staples, among others.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also been used to adorn hotels, such as one just unveiled atthe\u00a0<\/b>Phoenician, a luxury hotel in Scotsdale, Arizona:\"\"<\/p>\n

A solar array now sits atop a parking structure at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Jan. 14, 2015. The project is the first of several planned as a result of a partnership between Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and NRG Energy and was unveiled on Jan. 14, 2015. The project will feature 2,000 photovoltaic solar panels totaling nearly 600 kilowatts. (Photo by Rick Scuteri\/Invision for NRG Re New\/AP Images)<\/span><\/div>\n

And then there are other large-scale installers: One of the best known solar carports is at\u00a0the Washington Redskins\u2019\u00a0FedEx Field, where a gigantic solar array covering 841 parking spaces is able to generate enough power to cover \u201c20 percent of the stadium\u2019s power needs on game days and all of its power on non-game days,\u201d according to Clark Construction, which installed it.<\/p>\n

Laurence Mackler, who founded the\u00a0solar carport installer Solaire Generation, says his company has now installed 50 megawatts worth of carports\u00a0nationwide and has seen costs steadily decline over time. But he also emphasizes that\u00a0there\u2019s still a financial\u00a0problem \u2014 one that has limited the growth of solar carports significantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone says to me, that\u2019s a great idea, why doesn\u2019t everyone do it,\u201d says Mackler of solar carports. \u201cAnd I have to say, well, because the economics work in certain states.\u201d<\/p>\n

That conclusion was reaffirmed by a 2014 market research report on solar carports by GTM Research, which found that they are mainly springing up in Arizona, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York and most of all California, which is more than half\u00a0of the total market. For the most part, the report notes, that\u2019s because these states offer an array of state financial incentives to support their development.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause carport projects are more expensive, they have a generally higher reliance on state level incentives,\u201d says report co-author\u00a0Scott Moskowitz, a solar analyst with GTM Research. \u201cSo the markets in which those exist, there is going to be a higher concentration of carports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly,\u00a0the most important state is California, where according to GTM Research, solar carports have been supported both by the California Solar Initiative and also by the Division of the State Architect, which oversees construction on many public buildings. Moskowitz says that as costs of installation continue to decline, he does expect the solar carport market to expand into other states, too.<\/p>\n

So in sum: Putting solar atop pavements, with cooled down cars sandwiched in between, sounds like an energy no brainer. Maybe in the future, it\u2019ll also be a financial one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0washingtonpost.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America is a nation of pavement. According to research\u00a0conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, most cities\u2019 surfaces are 35 to 50 percent composed\u00a0of the stuff. And 40 percent of that pavement is parking lots. That has a large effect: Asphalt and concrete absorb the sun\u2019s energy, retaining\u00a0heat \u2014 and contributing to the \u201curban heat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-88146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-palaver-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}