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Solar Canopies Can Turn Parking Lots into Power Plants

While not always the first choice to deploy solar arrays, solar canopies over parking lots (often called “carports”) offer an excellent option where land area is too tight for ground-mounted systems and large rooftops are already covered by solar panels. Significant revenue may be generated for the parties involved, e.g., the developer and/or hosting entity.

As an amenity, canopies also offer shade on hot sunny days and cover from snow and heavy rains at other times. Depending on the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of the local grid power, i.e., metric tons per megawatt-hour [MT/MWh] or pounds per kilowatt-hour [lb/kWh], reductions in such climate-changing emissions may also be quite significant.

One of the largest canopy projects in the U.S. was completed in late 2024 at a commuter train station in lower New York State. The 4.18 MW system consists of 12 canopies running parallel to the Hudson River in the Village of Croton in Westchester County, just north of New York City.

Revenue from the facility approaches half a million dollars a year. The $16 million-dollar 4-year project was financed via the community solar process (in which residents and small businesses can subscribe to output from a project and receive a discount on their utility electric bills) and various incentives. Initiated during COVID, the project provided useful experience and “lessons learned” for the developer, the municipality, and sustainability advocates.

Read the full article هنا.

This article was originally published in the المجلة الدولية لإدارة الطاقة (IJEM Vol. 7, Iss. 2, 2025) by Lindsay Audin.

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Solar Canopies Can Turn Parking Lots into Power Plants

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