firsttruck
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A way to achieve greater than 100% solar power in the U.S., without sacrificing Arizona
December 12, 2019
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/12...power-in-the-u-s-without-sacrificing-arizona/
.....
For some quick math, a parking spot can hold about 9 solar modules, if they’re 400 watts each, and we can use half of the roughly 2 billion parking spots in the country – that’d total about 3.6 TW of solar capacity. This might conservatively 5,000 TWh/year – which would all on its own cover US’ approximate usage of 4,000 TWh/year.
** Note: In 2022, most professional solar panels are now 500W - 550W each, 25% more output than 400W panels.
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In France, all large parking lots now have to be covered by solar panels
By Jennifer Mossalgue | Nov 8 2022
https://electrek.co/2022/11/08/france-require-parking-lots-be-covered-in-solar-panels/
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The rooftops and parking lot space available at retail giants like Walmart, Target and Costco is massive. And these largely empty spaces are being touted as untapped potential for solar power that could help the US reduce its dependency on foreign energy, slash planet-warming emissions and save companies millions of dollars in the process.
Big-box stores could help slash emissions and save millions by putting solar panels on roofs. Why aren’t more of them doing it?
By Rachel Ramirez and Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN
Published 3:01 AM EDT, Sun March 20, 2022
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/20/us/solar-power-on-big-box-store-rooftops-climate/index.html
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Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots Is a Smart Green Move
Solar farms are proliferating on undeveloped land, often harming ecosystems. But placing solar canopies on large parking lots offers a host of advantages — making use of land that is already cleared, producing electricity close to those who need it, and even shading cars.
By Richard Conniff
November 22, 2021
https://e360.yale.edu/features/putting-solar-panels-atop-parking-lots-a-green-energy-solution
.....
Fly into Orlando, Florida, and you may notice a 22-acre solar power array in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head in a field just west of Disney World. Nearby, Disney also has a 270-acre solar farm of conventional design on former orchard and forest land. Park your car in any of Disney’s 32,000 parking spaces, on the other hand, and you won’t see a canopy overhead generating solar power (or providing shade) — not even if you snag one of the preferred spaces for which visitors pay up to $50 a day.
This is how it typically goes with solar arrays: We build them on open space rather than in developed areas. That is, they overwhelmingly occupy croplands, arid lands, and grasslands, not rooftops or parking lots, according to a global inventory published last month in Nature. In the United States, for instance, roughly 51 percent of utility-scale solar facilities are in deserts; 33 percent are on croplands; and 10 percent are in grasslands and forests. Just 2.5 percent of U.S. solar power comes from urban areas.
.....
A typical Walmart supercenter, for instance, has a five-acre parking lot, and it’s a wasteland, especially if you have to sweat your way across it under an asphalt-bubbling sun. Put a canopy over it, though, and it could support a three-megawatt solar array, according to a recent study co-authored by Joshua Pearce of Western University in Ontario. In addition to providing power to the store, the neighboring community, or the cars sheltered underneath, says Pearce, the canopy would shade customers — and keep them shopping longer, as their car batteries top up. If Walmart did that at all 3,571 of its U.S. super centers, the total capacity would be 11.1 gigawatts of solar power — roughly equivalent to a dozen large coal-fired power plants. Taking account of the part-time nature of solar power, Pearce figures that would be enough to permanently shut down four of those power plants.
And yet solar canopies are barely beginning to show up in this country’s endless acreage of parking lots. The Washington, D.C., Metro transit system, for instance, has just contracted to build its first solar canopies at four of its rail station parking lots, with a projected capacity of 12.8 megawatts. New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport is now building its first, a 12.3 megawatt canopy costing $56 million. Evansville (Indiana) Regional Airport, however, already has two, covering 368 parking spaces, at a cost of $6.5 million. According to a spokesperson, the solar canopy earned a $310,000 profit in its first year of operation, based on premium pricing of those spaces and the sale of power at wholesale rates to the local utility.
Rutgers University built one of the largest solar parking facilities in the country at its Piscataway, New Jersey campus, with a 32-acre footprint, an 8-megawatt output, and a business plan that the campus energy conservation manager called “pretty much cash-positive from the get-go.”
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17 parking lot solar canopies will generate power and research opportunities
May 18, 2021
Clemson University ( South Carolina, USA )
https://news.clemson.edu/17-parking...ll-generate-power-and-research-opportunities/
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The Ternium ( Monterrey, NL, Mexico ) Corporate Building that Is Now Fully Sustainable
In total, 1,012 solar panels were installed.
November 2021
Ternium ( Monterrey, NL, Mexico )
https://www.ternium.com/en/media/news/ternium-sustainability-solar-energy--25461142722
.....
on the fourth floor of the University Plant parking lot, the installation of a photovoltaic system of 1,012 solar panels began to produce 90% of the energy necessary for the operation of its corporate building. Each panel can produce 445 watts (W), reaching an installed capacity of 450 kilowatts (kW). “These panels make it possible to generate approximately 630 thousand kilowatts per hour and year. This offers us the capacity to cover (on an annual average) at least 90% of the consumption that the building needs”, explains Edison Grisales, Infrastructure & Services Project Manager of Ternium Mexico. This is equivalent to the electrical energy consumption of approximately 100 houses.
.....
On the other hand, Albes Urdaneta, head of Energy Efficiency at Ternium Mexico, points out the possibility of incorporating photovoltaic systems at other points in the plants to replace electrical energy with solar energy is currently being studied. “The idea is that all the plants have this type of energy wherever possible,” explains Urdaneta.
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A Study on the Power Production Potential of Parking Space Solar Shelters in Kingston, Ontario
By Evan Metcalfe
Queen’s University: ENSC 501 Kingston, Ontario, Canada 2016
https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/handle/1974/15626/ensc_501_metcalfe.pdf?sequence=1
Abstract The implementation of solar shelters over top of parking spaces has the potential to make the production of renewable energy a secondary function of parking lots without impeding their ability to function as parking locations. This has the capacity to reduce the amount of natural space converted to solar farms as solar energy becomes more common. In addition, if these shelters are outfitted as charging stations for electric vehicles, they could serve as a driver for a cultural shift towards a more sustainable vehicle fleet. Implementation of this technology has begun on a small scale in San Diego, California and this project assessed the feasibility of implementation in Kingston, Ontario. This study set out to determine how much energy could be produced by a solar shelter over one parking space and how many parking spaces would be required to produce 1% of Kingston’s total electricity consumption.
-----------------------------------------------------------
A way to achieve greater than 100% solar power in the U.S., without sacrificing Arizona
December 12, 2019
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/12...power-in-the-u-s-without-sacrificing-arizona/
.....
For some quick math, a parking spot can hold about 9 solar modules, if they’re 400 watts each, and we can use half of the roughly 2 billion parking spots in the country – that’d total about 3.6 TW of solar capacity. This might conservatively 5,000 TWh/year – which would all on its own cover US’ approximate usage of 4,000 TWh/year.
** Note: In 2022, most professional solar panels are now 500W - 550W each, 25% more output than 400W panels.
-----------------------------------------------------------
In France, all large parking lots now have to be covered by solar panels
By Jennifer Mossalgue | Nov 8 2022
https://electrek.co/2022/11/08/france-require-parking-lots-be-covered-in-solar-panels/
-----------------------------------------------------------
The rooftops and parking lot space available at retail giants like Walmart, Target and Costco is massive. And these largely empty spaces are being touted as untapped potential for solar power that could help the US reduce its dependency on foreign energy, slash planet-warming emissions and save companies millions of dollars in the process.
Big-box stores could help slash emissions and save millions by putting solar panels on roofs. Why aren’t more of them doing it?
By Rachel Ramirez and Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN
Published 3:01 AM EDT, Sun March 20, 2022
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/20/us/solar-power-on-big-box-store-rooftops-climate/index.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots Is a Smart Green Move
Solar farms are proliferating on undeveloped land, often harming ecosystems. But placing solar canopies on large parking lots offers a host of advantages — making use of land that is already cleared, producing electricity close to those who need it, and even shading cars.
By Richard Conniff
November 22, 2021
https://e360.yale.edu/features/putting-solar-panels-atop-parking-lots-a-green-energy-solution
.....
Fly into Orlando, Florida, and you may notice a 22-acre solar power array in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head in a field just west of Disney World. Nearby, Disney also has a 270-acre solar farm of conventional design on former orchard and forest land. Park your car in any of Disney’s 32,000 parking spaces, on the other hand, and you won’t see a canopy overhead generating solar power (or providing shade) — not even if you snag one of the preferred spaces for which visitors pay up to $50 a day.
This is how it typically goes with solar arrays: We build them on open space rather than in developed areas. That is, they overwhelmingly occupy croplands, arid lands, and grasslands, not rooftops or parking lots, according to a global inventory published last month in Nature. In the United States, for instance, roughly 51 percent of utility-scale solar facilities are in deserts; 33 percent are on croplands; and 10 percent are in grasslands and forests. Just 2.5 percent of U.S. solar power comes from urban areas.
.....
A typical Walmart supercenter, for instance, has a five-acre parking lot, and it’s a wasteland, especially if you have to sweat your way across it under an asphalt-bubbling sun. Put a canopy over it, though, and it could support a three-megawatt solar array, according to a recent study co-authored by Joshua Pearce of Western University in Ontario. In addition to providing power to the store, the neighboring community, or the cars sheltered underneath, says Pearce, the canopy would shade customers — and keep them shopping longer, as their car batteries top up. If Walmart did that at all 3,571 of its U.S. super centers, the total capacity would be 11.1 gigawatts of solar power — roughly equivalent to a dozen large coal-fired power plants. Taking account of the part-time nature of solar power, Pearce figures that would be enough to permanently shut down four of those power plants.
And yet solar canopies are barely beginning to show up in this country’s endless acreage of parking lots. The Washington, D.C., Metro transit system, for instance, has just contracted to build its first solar canopies at four of its rail station parking lots, with a projected capacity of 12.8 megawatts. New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport is now building its first, a 12.3 megawatt canopy costing $56 million. Evansville (Indiana) Regional Airport, however, already has two, covering 368 parking spaces, at a cost of $6.5 million. According to a spokesperson, the solar canopy earned a $310,000 profit in its first year of operation, based on premium pricing of those spaces and the sale of power at wholesale rates to the local utility.
Rutgers University built one of the largest solar parking facilities in the country at its Piscataway, New Jersey campus, with a 32-acre footprint, an 8-megawatt output, and a business plan that the campus energy conservation manager called “pretty much cash-positive from the get-go.”
-----------------------------------------------------------
17 parking lot solar canopies will generate power and research opportunities
May 18, 2021
Clemson University ( South Carolina, USA )
https://news.clemson.edu/17-parking...ll-generate-power-and-research-opportunities/
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Ternium ( Monterrey, NL, Mexico ) Corporate Building that Is Now Fully Sustainable
In total, 1,012 solar panels were installed.
November 2021
Ternium ( Monterrey, NL, Mexico )
https://www.ternium.com/en/media/news/ternium-sustainability-solar-energy--25461142722
.....
on the fourth floor of the University Plant parking lot, the installation of a photovoltaic system of 1,012 solar panels began to produce 90% of the energy necessary for the operation of its corporate building. Each panel can produce 445 watts (W), reaching an installed capacity of 450 kilowatts (kW). “These panels make it possible to generate approximately 630 thousand kilowatts per hour and year. This offers us the capacity to cover (on an annual average) at least 90% of the consumption that the building needs”, explains Edison Grisales, Infrastructure & Services Project Manager of Ternium Mexico. This is equivalent to the electrical energy consumption of approximately 100 houses.
.....
On the other hand, Albes Urdaneta, head of Energy Efficiency at Ternium Mexico, points out the possibility of incorporating photovoltaic systems at other points in the plants to replace electrical energy with solar energy is currently being studied. “The idea is that all the plants have this type of energy wherever possible,” explains Urdaneta.
-----------------------------------------------------------
A Study on the Power Production Potential of Parking Space Solar Shelters in Kingston, Ontario
By Evan Metcalfe
Queen’s University: ENSC 501 Kingston, Ontario, Canada 2016
https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/handle/1974/15626/ensc_501_metcalfe.pdf?sequence=1
Abstract The implementation of solar shelters over top of parking spaces has the potential to make the production of renewable energy a secondary function of parking lots without impeding their ability to function as parking locations. This has the capacity to reduce the amount of natural space converted to solar farms as solar energy becomes more common. In addition, if these shelters are outfitted as charging stations for electric vehicles, they could serve as a driver for a cultural shift towards a more sustainable vehicle fleet. Implementation of this technology has begun on a small scale in San Diego, California and this project assessed the feasibility of implementation in Kingston, Ontario. This study set out to determine how much energy could be produced by a solar shelter over one parking space and how many parking spaces would be required to produce 1% of Kingston’s total electricity consumption.
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