¿Can "solar farms" be put on top of malls/superstores?

[underpants]

My wife and I were driving around this weekend (okay we were in the Volvo coming back from getting grassfed beef at a local farm :hi: ) and she said

"Why don't they put solar power things on top of malls?"

Wow what a great idea. Maybe not a new idea (I am emailing Al Gore's operation as well as Walmart, Lowe's, Target, etc) but a good one anyway.

I spoke to an architect friend of ours who said that the only concern would be sufficient southern exposure. I take that to mean that there is no heat concern (from the rooftop) or weight concern.

:shrug:

Happy Earth Day

[Turbineguy]

1. Heat absorbed

by the solar panels results in lower air conditioning loads too.

Often the simple ideas are the most ingenious!

[NJmaverick]

2. No question it could be done quite easily

[Lasher]

3. Hey, that is a good idea, Underpants.

I have seen pictures of residential rooftop installations but why not the great big flat rooftops of malls? My state gets very little average hours of sunshine annually, so solar power is a questionable option here. It does help, though, to have the cheapest electricity in the nation, at $.07/kWh.

[amerikat]

4. Google headquarters has rooftop solar as do some Kohl's

and many other stores. Google "roof top solar"

[underpants]

6. Thanks. Seems to be a perfect place for them

no habitat is disrupted
no valuable land is taken or needed

Thanks for the tip.

[liberal N proud]

5. I saw something the other day about a concept of a parking garage

with solar panels on top and plug in hybrid cars. Electricity would be free to any employee who used hybrid.
I don't recall if it was already in place or just a concept.

[prole_for_peace]

8. The headquarters of Patagonia has solar panels over parking spots

and closer parking for hybrid drivers

[ClayZ]

7. I had my arm out the car window,

on the way to my folks house. When you are driving 60 mph there is a lot of ENERGY out there. Could that not be harvested, somehow, and used!


Tiny wind mills on cars? Me and Don Quixote!







:shrug:

[FREEWILL56]

11. Yes, that is alot of energy that was produced by the engine of your car/truck.

To harness that energy back to electricity would 1> slow your vehicle down and 2> waste some of the power in the conversion. That is a lose lose scenario, but when it comes time to hitting the brakes that's another story as the slowing down of the vehicle is desirable and if it can produce some power that otherwise would be lost because you had to slow down or stop then this is good. Many hybrids do have this on the braking system.

[LiberalEsto]

9. Check this Canadian govt. webside

They have information about rooftop food gardening around the world.

http://www.cityfarmer.org/subrooftops.html

Here's a bit from one article on the page:

" The True Nature Foods 'Rooftop Victory Garden' for localized agricultural production was begun as Phase I in 2006. This project received a 'City of Chicago Green Roof Grants Program 2005: Residential and Small Commercial Buildings' grant from the Department on the Environment toward realization of the vegetated roof, and has become a 'poster project' of sorts for the grant program. Species planted in fall 2006 include buckwheat, burdock, comfrey, Jerusalem artichoke, and artichoke, which were selected for their ability to provide food, fuel, fiber, encourage human health, and help build healthy soil. Species planted in 2007 include herbs such as mints, rosemary, oregano, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, and squash. Posted June 12, 2007

[diane in sf]

10. Cover the rooftops and the parking lots--prevents urban heat build-up.

[FREEWILL56]

12. In short they should.

Why stop there as there are schools, municiple buildings, etc. that all would benefit from a solar installation? Many of these places will not become self-sufficient in doing this as many of them are huge energy hogs, but this would certainly help with it. Also when pvs are inline with the solar energy that would normally hit a building that the heat is also being blocked from the building by the pvs. This is why pvs should have a clearance of at least 6 inches so as to allow for air to circulate and cool the pvs. Heat is not a requirement of pvs to operate and is in fact a misnomer and a detriment to their power production for it is the light energy that is turned into power. Many would be shocked to know that some pvs in colder snow laden areas can and do at times outperform many in their warmer climatic areas. (light reflects off of the snows) The drawback with those colder areas is the shorter timeperiods of available sunlight.

[XemaSab]

13. It's been done in a lot of areas

Factories have some rooftop PV too.

[Ready4Change]

15. Factories, warehouses, government buildings

A problem is that solar arrays do weight a significant amount. Roofs need are generally engineered to handle local wind/rain/snow loads, plus a safety factor. Large arrays will lessen or even exceed that safety factor, requiring the roofs to be strengthened.

With that said, I think every single roof with decent solar exposure should be paneled. It shades the roofs, and takes solar energy that would otherwise require extra AC use and converts it to electricity. Win/win.

[Shoelace]

14. greenroofs.com

looks to be a very interesting website:

http://www.greenroofs.com/

[Duppers]

16. give that girl a prize

that's an excellent idea.

[Dead_Parrot]

17. Better than nothing...

...Although I don't suppose getting rid of the malls is an option?

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=37.655965,-77.619824&spn=0.00564,0.009924&t=k&z=17

Eesh. (Nothing against Richmond, BTW - had to pick one somehow!)