Comment by t1234s
4 months ago
Solar panels == shade. Any companies deploying solar in this manner (parking lots, pedestrian trails, bus benches, etc..)
4 months ago
Solar panels == shade. Any companies deploying solar in this manner (parking lots, pedestrian trails, bus benches, etc..)
Locally Michigan State is covering all their parking lots with solar panels. The added advantage is that since you're car is parked under them you don't have to clear the snow off.
https://ipf.msu.edu/about/news/solar-carport-initiative-earn...
But what I haven't figured out is if they have to broom them off after a snow or just wait until the sun melts it. By the time I am around in the afternoon time they are always cleared.
For panels in northern climates, if the tilt is fixed or just seasonally adjusted (i.e., not tracking the sun), we often will bias towards a bit more vertical tilt than mathematically optimal to encourage snow shedding.
Panels have a low albedo - they absorb a lot of energy. About 25% of that is turned into electricity, the rest heats the panel. So as soon as a corner is exposed to the sun, it tends to melt off the rest of the snow comparatively quickly.
Unless it's borderline melting, brooming is not enough, you'd have to move the snow away or berms would form quickly.
No idea if anyone actually does this. In theory, you could forward-bias the panels with an external power supply. That should generate infrared light at the band gap, which should melt the snow.
It might be enough to just form a thin layer of water, so the whole mass of snow slides off.
This gets proposed a lot. The reason it isn't more frequent is due to the cost of the structure to hold the panels & risks of people running into them.
It would be great if these costs could come down. Parking lots, animal pastures & other areas could be protected & create energy at the same time.
Here is a large installation over surface parking at a VA medical center. I think it is just a matter of time before this becomes the standard everywhere.
Lat, Lon: 29.701864, -95.388646
https://maps.app.goo.gl/N7U4EmUVQsFG6gfZ8
I did a presentation on this in college back in 2008...the math was good even back then as far as electricity payback and other benefits.
And solar has gotten way cheaper since then. It's a no-brainer.
The other main obstacle to solar construction anywhere is grid permitting.
> risks of people running into them
Curious how people run into solar panels. I wonder how many ER visits say "I ran into a solar panel"
People drive into buildings all the time. Like it's actually like over a hundred per day sort of thing in the US. Happens really frequently here in Canada as well.
If you include stuff like stop signs, light poles, mailboxes, and fences its probably in the several thousands. Fixed object collisions are super common.
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If you put solar panels in parking lots, you're adding a lot of posts to the parking lot to hold them that weren't there before. People are going to crash into those posts in parking lots often.
For example, light posts constantly get bumped in parking lots.
To hold your solar panels you need really strong posts that can both hold them and get bumped into by vehicles. Especially in the USA where you have giant vehicles & tight parking spaces.
This all adds to the cost before you even get to electricity storage & transmission.
Drivers hit structures all the time.
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They also light on fire occasionally
China is doing a lot with combining solar and fish farms.
Yes, many companies are doing this in their parking lots, even some govt buildings do this. My local library has panels setup over part of their parking lot for instance.
Is it economically viable (pays itself)? It looks simple, but designing a shade is no small feat.
I looked once into solar covers for EV charging spots and it would provide like 5% of energy, not worth the hassle.
For parking the convenience is definitely worth it, but economically I don't think supermarkets care that much.
I've never done the math, but I've seen Walmarts start putting solar panels as cover in their parking lots.