Solar car parks: A new direction for solar energy?
As I said in my previous post, I’m a huge supporter of renewable energy and as a result I constantly search for new projects that involve the application of alternate energy devices like the solar panel, wind turbine, and so on.(just in case you didn’t read my previous post, here’s the link: https:[email protected][email protected]llbap0)
So let’s come back to the topic in hand. All of the car parks are made up of concrete and tarmac, both of which are heat absorbing materials. Thus, contribute to what is known as the ‘urban heat island effect’ which makes cities hotter than the areas around them.
Solar panels can drastically reduce the urban heat island effect, as well as being a major contributor to tackling climate change. Therefore, a really good way of utilizing them in cities is to cover car parking spaces with them and this led to the implementation of Solar car parks.
In the United States of America and in a few other countries, a majority of the car parks are covered or equipped with solar panels and such a parking lot is called the ‘carport’. Traditionally, these carports are usual car parking lots that are covered with a canopy which is quipped with a solar panel. The type of the solar panel that is going to be used generally depends on the structure of the parking lot. For example, in multi-level carport’s the roof is covered with solar panels that are made up of crystalline Silicon (i.e. solid solar panels) and the windows or the individual levels are fitted with flexible polymer solar panels. Certain carports are fully equipped with semi-transparent flexible polymer solar panels to allow light to pass through them and hence adding a decorative effect to it.
The main advantage of building such carports is that you get free electricity to power the entire parking lot. The amount of energy they generate depends according to the amount of space covered and the particular type of solar technology. However if some good choices like using LED lights are made, then even after powering the entire structure enough juice (electricity) will be left for other uses. Moreover, since the solar panels absorb all the heat your vehicle remains cool at the ambient temperature.
Solar car parks can also be combined with electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and hydrogen fueling stations and other green building systems can be incorporated into their construction, such as LED lighting and rainwater recycling systems.
Unfortunately, solar car parks are fairly expensive. In the UK, prices start from £2,500 per parking space.
The average payback period (in the UK) is about 12 years and there are various additional financing options available, which eases some of the financial burden off the investing company.
.On the bright side, a number of large companies like Google are looking at solar car parks, which means that if the sector survives the government cuts, there could be substantial opportunities lying in wait in the years ahead.
P.S. In case you are not a big fan of reading articles, I have a YouTube channel in which I publish videos on these topics (usually a day or two after I publish the article here). So please feel free to check that out:
