Covering large parking lots with solar panels is an idea that goes back decades but in America at least it’s an idea that has never really taken off.

What is the reason for that? Is it due to the overall cost or is there something else that keeps Walmart, Target, Costco, Sams Club, Malls, etc. from covering their parking lots with these panels and selling the power?

  • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    If you’re going up put them in a parking lot, they have to be up high enough that people need lifts and fall protection, and in order to actually use the parking lot you’ll need some heavy duty concrete supports, not just “poles”. And that’s before you even get into the cost of the electrical infrastructure. All the conduit will need to be buried, which means ripping up the parking lot and then repaving it, new subpanels and inverters, new meter, god knows what regulatory requirements…

    You clearly have no experience or research into this matter so please stop assuming that you’ve figured it all out. It’s not as simple as all that.