The Vector: Finding Space for Energy Farming
The Bell Group's New Mexico parking lot solar array was built by Schott, a local solar company
The Bell Group announced at the end of August that they have built the largest solary array in New Mexico at their company headquarters. The five-acre installation uses more than 5,000 solar modules and will generate in excess of 1,600,000 kWh of electricity annually. That is enough to meet 80 percent of the company’s electricity needs there. Bell’s solar arrays form a roof over what was previously an open parking lot, shading employee and visitor vehicles as well as providing power.
The Bell Group’s array will not be the largest in the state for very long. The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Health Care System in Albuquerque, New Mexico, announced it is installing a 3.2 MW photovoltaic system that will include a car port as well as roof-mounted arrays.
Solaire Generation, a designer, manufacturer and installer of solar parking structures, expects to build canopies supporting at least 5 MW of installed capacity by the end of 2010. The company has been selected to supply solar parking canopies as part of a 4.1 megawatt solar-power project in New Jersey that will cover about 1,350 parking spaces. When complete, a total of 1.1 miles of canopies, which feature a patented dual incline design, will support a PV solar power system providing electricity equal to the annual consumption of more than 320 households.
A sensible trend
Covering parking lots with solar arrays is likely to be a continuing and very sensible trend. Renewable energy systems – solar in particular – need a lot more land mass than existing fossil fuel systems. In his book Energy Transitions, History, Requirements, Prospects, Professor Vaclav Smil calculates that global fossil fuel operations currently use an area equivalent in size to Belgium to supply the 12.5 terrawatts of energy we consume each year. Moving to renewable energy would require 400 times more space – the equivalent of the combined land masses of the US and India. We need to find large land areas that are available to perform dual roles. Rooftops are obviously one. Open air parking lots are another.
In an article in Green Energy News in August, Bruce Mulliken made some convincing arguments for roofing parking lots with solar arrays. Parking lots are nearly always near a power grid connection, he points out. This cuts electricity transmission losses as well as the cost of installing the solar plant. They are nearly always near at least one building that needs electricity. Not only is this good for the building owner, but what solar electricity the building doesn’t need can be sold to the grid. If you don’t roof them, the area above open parking lots is simply wasted space.. And there are already thousands of acres of parking lots across America, designed to attract shoppers and commuters, as well as providing convenience for workers.
Parking lots are cheap land, says Mulliken. If a building developer can afford to pave over land that often covers more area than the building itself, then the land must be really inexpensive. Most open parking lots are largely unshaded areas. Providing shading and weather protection is good for the car and appreciated by the car owner. And there is an obvious double benefit for those considering providing power points for electric vehicles in their parking areas.
Expect further growth in this area.
