Parking lots to double as power plants

[liberal N proud]

Palmdale California parking lots to double as power plants

The city is allowing shopping centers and business parks to install small wind turbines atop light towers in parking lots. A 17-turbine plot is already in the works at Sam's Club.

In an effort to tap one of the high desert's most abundant resources, Palmdale is allowing large shopping centers and business parks to install small wind turbines in their parking lots to save on electricity costs.

Civic leaders in the Antelope Valley have taken a variety of steps in recent years to harness and adapt to the region's vast supplies of sun and wind. In Lancaster, hundreds of acres of desert landscape will be used for a huge bed of solar-thermal panels. Both Palmdale and Lancaster have taken steps to ban new lawns to help conserve water.

The plan for urban wind turbines puts Palmdale in company with blustery cities such as Buffalo, N.Y., and Cleveland that have allowed small wind farms in commercial and business districts.

Palmdale's plan clears the way for turbines no more than 60 feet high to be erected atop light standards in some parking lots.

City officials are also studying turbines that could be compatible in neighborhoods.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wind-farms21-2009oct21,0,5733849.story




Now I think that is great idea but here is a better idea from Business Week magazine back in May:

Sun shades cool parking lots, pump out solar energy


Add up all the asphalt parking lots surrounding the nation’s malls, offices and commuter hubs, and there’s more than enough blacktop to pave over Connecticut. Envision Solar International hopes to transform those barren expanses into green-energy oases by erecting forests of “solar trees”. About 12 feet tall, each “tree” is capped with a 1,000 sq-ft canopy covered in solar cells.

Already installed or being built in a handful of California parking areas, Envision’s high-tech sun shades not only make the lots cooler and more comfortable, they generate clean power during daylight hours when it’s most needed. When “planted” in the parking lot of a typical regional shopping mall, a grove of the square-shaped shades can generate up to half a megawatt, enough to power about 500 homes. And since the property owner purchases the power the trees generate over their lifetime, Envision can finance and install them with no additional charge to the owner. In time, the San Diego-based company hopes its solar structures will help fuel tomorrow’s electric cars.



http://www.businessweek.com/investing/green_business/archives/2008/05/sun_shades_cool.html

[Sherman A1]

1. Agreed

The solar shade is a great idea and I hope to see the concept expand, but why not both? I am sure there are areas that one of them would work better than the other or perhaps another idea might be equally as good, but I don't see one of these as inherently better than the other idea, we need to do everything!:hi:

[jtrockville]

2. Beautiful!

[phantom power]

3. When I was in high school, I once remarked to my dad...

that it would be cool if somebody could make pavement that photosynthesized. Or generated electricity, etc. His response was something like "Boy, are you mad? They'd pave the whole planet."

[The2ndWheel]

4. Imagine the job creation

[gblady]

5. very cool....

it would seem to be good for our cars also....
protect them from the heat and rain...

[liberal N proud]

6. A covered parking space that is good for the environment

[adamuu]

7. that's neat! n/t