It's about 4 dollars per watt to retrofit a typical parking lot with the bulk of the added cost beyond solar being to build the structure to hold the panels. It might come down to 3.50 or something or maybe a bit further if the lot is very large and sunny. A new stadium lot comes to mind as a potentially good fit.
I think it helps to power on site EV charging, but that will only matter at places that mostly get use during the day, like a corporate campus. I like the idea of charging from solar in the lot and avoiding the wasteful inversion process potentially, but that seems like more of an academic solution right now than an at scale one.
I think there's certainly value in it but if the goal is to directly make money or get as much clean power on the grid as possible, it's better to just throw panels in a big, sunny field.
I get that retrofit costs are high, but what would the incremental cost be for a newly built parking lot?
Would it also help to incorporate the power with on site EV charging?
It's about 4 dollars per watt to retrofit a typical parking lot with the bulk of the added cost beyond solar being to build the structure to hold the panels. It might come down to 3.50 or something or maybe a bit further if the lot is very large and sunny. A new stadium lot comes to mind as a potentially good fit.
I think it helps to power on site EV charging, but that will only matter at places that mostly get use during the day, like a corporate campus. I like the idea of charging from solar in the lot and avoiding the wasteful inversion process potentially, but that seems like more of an academic solution right now than an at scale one.
I think there's certainly value in it but if the goal is to directly make money or get as much clean power on the grid as possible, it's better to just throw panels in a big, sunny field.