Photovoltaic Carport Shades in San Diego
by TreeHugger on 12.21.04
There isn’t much that’s more renewable than solar energy, and we give the TreeHugger thumbs-up to anyone who uses it. But somebody working for the San Diego Environmental Services Department is a real smarty-pants: the photovoltaic panels in the parking lot keep cars shady, too! The panels here and elsewhere on the center make it the City’s first energy independent building, and the carport array powers the 87,000 kilowatt-hours-a-year administration building (saving $16,551 every year). While it’s just plain more comfy to get into a car that hasn’t been baking in the sun all day, it can contribute to energy savings since you won’t have to blast the A/C to get the car’s temperature back down to habitable. ::San Diego Environmental Services [by KK]
That's quite clever really.
Brilliant! However, they would be significantly more effective if properly angled instead of lying flat!
shouldn't the be slightly angled to help shed rainwater as well?
The lack of an angled roof looks like a major design flaw.