(7/12/11) By John Addison
It takes a lot of electricity to run Dow Jones, one of the world’s largest publishers and information providers. Dow Jones is now generating 3.6 MW of its own electricity with Solaire Generation Solar Parking Canopies. Solar parking structures allow organizations to reduce their utility bills, get more control of their own electricity generation, convert asphalt heat islands into attractive demonstrations of sustainability, and protect employees, customers and their cars.
I met with Solaire Generation CEO Laurence Mackler here at the Intersolar conference and exhibition being visited by over 22,000. Mackler explained that he founded the business because it made economic sense for his customers. They run the numbers and approve projects. Solaire is completely focused on parking structures with a patented dual-incline roof, the main surface south sloping for greatest efficiency. All Solaire parking structures use PV panels, not thin-film, to capture enough sun in the constrained space of the structures.
Increasingly, customers are also including solar electric car charging. Johnson and Johnson included 5 Coulomb Technology charge points in their 1.1 MW Solar Parking Canopy which uses SunPower panels. General Electric has a new Solaire parking structure that includes a number of the new GE charging stations.
The Arizona VA Hospital is installing 2.9 MW of solar panels from Kyocera and REC Group covering several parking lots. To research this article, I meet with Dr. Angiolo Laviziano, the CEO of REC Solar who is managing all aspects of this solar project.
The installation will add to a 302 kW single-axis tracker mounted system that REC Solar. Following the angle of the sun through the day, single axis systems are often 30 percent more efficient than fixed panels. Dr. Laviziano states that REC has 4.1 MW of added solar parking under contract from other VA Hospitals.
Like many organizations, the VA Hospital considered locating the solar panels on its roofs. This approach would have been more expensive; a uniform surface was not available due to rooftop located air conditioning and other equipment. Solar parking had the added benefit of giving employees and patients shading parking, instead of exposure to the blistering Arizona summer sun. Highly visible, the solar parking provides a positive public image which is often lost when solar is installed on roofs of high buildings.
REC Solar CEO Angiolo Laviziano is now expanding business for his 600-employee firm. REC plans to partner with several makers of electric charging equipment. Customers are expressing a growing interest in including electric car charge points in their electric parking structures. The least expensive time to install charging stations is when the power electronics, panels, and other equipment in being installed for the solar power, parking lighting, and other electric demands.
An informal REC survey of early adopters of electric cars, such as the Nissan LEAF and Chevrolet Volt, showed that these drivers also use solar power. Another 50 percent are interested in solar power. Angiolo is a perfect example of an early adopter of both. Years ago, he converted his Subaru to be an electric car using added lead-acid batteries in the trunk. He charges his car with his REC Solar system, a highly efficient two-axis system. He is the only owner I’ve met of an all-wheel drive electric car and certainly the only one who charges with a two-axis solar system.
Thousands of Parking Spaces Now Solar Shaded Globally
California State University Bakersfield (CSUB), Dr. Horace Mitchell and Sun Edison LLC, a leading worldwide solar energy services provider and a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE:WFR), co-hosted a “Flip the Switch” ceremony to commemorate the activation of the 1.2 megawatt (MW) solar parking canopy located on the CSUB campus.
The oil industry is one of the world’s biggest users of electricity. Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company has covered 4,500 parking spaces with 10 MW of thin-film CIGS solar from Solar Frontier, a company in which they are a major investor. Nikolai Dobrott, a Managing Director with Apricum estimates that the nation of Saudi Arabia may need as much as 30GW of added electricity in this decade, currently using natural gas, oil, and diesel for virtually all power generation; solar is an attractive form of diversification.
Solar developer Belectric is managing the solar project at Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran. Over 120,000 CIS (Copper Indium Selenide) photovoltaic modules cover 4,500 parking spaces at the North Park offices parking lot, sheltering vehicles from the desert sun.
Automakers Massively Deploying Solar Parking Structures with Electric Car Charge Points
Envision has made its business focus to offer pre-configured and custom solar parking structures. Many offerings are designed to be attractive, converting asphalt urban heat islands into beautiful urban forests. The structures were originally designed by Envision founder and architect Robert Nobel.
In 2010, General Motors selected Envision to install its CleanCharge™ solar powered electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations integrated into EnvisionTrak™ tracking Solar Trees® at prominent GM locations.
Renault is not only working with Better Place to put 100,000 Renault Fluence electric cars on the streets of Israel and Denmark, it is also implementing a world record 55 MW of solar parking structures at various manufacturing facilities.
Whether an organization is providing for patients, students, or employees, solar parking structures are creating clean energy, shaded electric car charging, and attractive urban forests.
It might be good to remember that with a solar rooftop available at the workplace as well as on your own rooftop, the range of any electric vehicle is extended. Also, doesn’t the Renault mentioned use a swappable battery? Trickle charging hundreds (or thousands) of these batteries within the parking structures, seems like the most direct method of transferring instant as well as storable power.
Has there been any testing to see if the efficiency of having the solar created on-site is higher/better than having it first go through utility transmission lines?
Good points, Ralph. Solar parking and solar roofs deliver energy where it is used. Transmission loses with high-voltage lines are small, but long-distance through the U.S. grid, loses could be 10 percent. Yes, the Renault Fluence has a removeable battery, giving partners such as Better Place the opportunity to charge with renewables and during off-peak times.