Check out this treehugger article about putting solar arrays on the roofs of big box stores in Califronia to help meet their RPS requirement. Big box stores are stores like Wal-Mart, Costco, and Best Buy that are in MASSIVE flat, single-level buildings (and don't forget the gigundic parking lot, ahh suburbia). They are away from tall buildings and trees so their roofs are not shaded and they are flat, ideal for putting in a solar array. Another plus is if the array is elevated a little bit from the roof, it shades the roof cooling the building, lowering the AC load.
---
You would think this would have been done a lot earlier. You always hear the stats saying that a 100 square mile plot of land in a desert of the southwestern US covered in solar panels would be enough to power the nation. There are lots of reason why that's not such a good idea (security risk, transmission losses) but the idea is there. I am sure we have enough space on all of our strip malls, super markets, warehouses and the like to put up enough panels on them.
--
It's not exactly a novel idea for the energy industry, next thing you know they'll announce that they are putting wind turbines offshore.
Comments