this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2024
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The only reason I would be against this is because it disincentivizes removing large parking lots, which are primarily a waste of space. If we could replace some of that wasted space with housing (which could also have solar slapped on it) that would be ideal.
This picture/render looks like it's in Europe, where that could maybe be feasible. In the US, though, I think we need to take what we can get.
I've seen this concept myself built in the Netherlands already, if I'm not mistaken
Many EV fast chargers have a solar roof over the parking spot. The one in this picture look kind of similar in design to the transparent solar roofs that Fastned puts over their chargers in the Netherlands and Germany
https://content.presspage.com/uploads/2519/1920_fastnedfastchargingstation-kreuz-hilden-germany039slargestcharginghub.jpg?10000
Parking lots ain't going anywhere.
They are and they must. There is no path forward that doesn't massively disinvest from personal vehicles.
They must, but they aren't. The infrastructure investments to make mass transit preferable in sprawling cities will not happen soon enough. The people in power will not compromise their worship of free markets for climate change. Over time, the market will transition that way, but not any faster under the current system.
US auto-domination isn't even the result of market forces though.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of laissez-faire policy or capitalism in general, but government funded highway lanes are no more capitalist than government funded rail tracks. The current situation in the US required enormous government intervention to establish, in the form of the forced seizure of property to make way for highways, hundreds of billions of dollars (inflation adjusted) to build those highways, mandatory parking minimums for new construction (to store all the cars from the highway), government subsidies for suburban style development and later on tax schemes that resulted in poorer inner city areas subsidizing wealthy suburbs, and zoning laws that made it illegal to build a business in a residential area (which worked together with anti-loitering laws to make it so that if you didn't live in a neighborhood you had no "legitimate" reason to be there. It's not a coincidence this happened in the wake of desegregation.)
Similarly fossil fuel production in the US actually receives direct government subsidies at the federal and sometimes state level (some of which have been in effect since 1916).
Now, we can get into the weeds and talk about how government action is actually a necessary part of capitalism and the intertwined nature of power structures and so on and so forth, but it's important to remember that there's nothing inevitable or natural about the mess we're in right now, as some would have you believe. It required conscious planning and choices, as well as tremendous effort and tremendous injustice to get here.
Oh, I know full well that the free market did not get us here. I'm saying that the politicians will, at best, force us to use the free market to make progress. Rules for thee and whatnot. Things will probably happen more slowly than that, as auto makers will resist the market forces more than we can push in the markets' direction.
They are in large cities. Look at aerial photos of, e.g. Washington DC from 20 years ago vs today and you'll see many fewer parking lots.
Too bad the driving force is gentrification.
My comment specified large parking lots for a reason. The amount of space wasted around seldom used, high volume areas (like stadiums) is absurd, and other countries have shown they’re much better served by increased public transit, not giant parking lots that sit empty 300+ days of the year.
Oh yeah buddy what temp is it outside rn?
Asphalt loves heating cities up
This article is literally about shading the asphalt
Yeah but asphalt is usually chosen due to it being the cheap and easy option, I can't imagine anywhere that hasn't already used concrete is happy to spend more on their parking lot unless forced, and tbh if of there's enough solar panels in the world to match US's parking lot surface area
The energy generated by commercial solar installations is then sold, generating income. No one's expecting parking lot owners to do this out of the goodness of their heart
This was a parking lot, now it's a peaceful oasis!
Ok but like why wouldn't a solar farm be an acceptable alternative?
Putting solar farms in urban areas instead of rural ones doesn't make much sense.
How so? A) Less transmission lines to where it's needed and b) more qualified/trained staff centralized to the solar installs.
I'm not against rural solar by any stretch but I can't fathom being against urban solar? We need to solar all the things.
In my post I literally said that solar can be put on top of houses so I'm not sure why you want to argue with me about this. I just think urban areas are better served by homes with solar on top than parking lots with solar on top.
Okay, reasonable enough, I had read your response as "no solar, just homes and put the solar in rural".