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It’s not just cars that will undergo an energy transition in the coming years. Parking lots where electric vehicles recharge are a growing focus of construction efforts related to climate change and carbon reduction.
A law passed in France last month requires parking lots with 80 or more seats to be covered with solar panels within the next five years. For the largest parking lots, which have more than 400 seats, three years have been granted to have at least half of the car park’s surface area covered by solar energy.
Similar renewable energy design ideas are expected to gain more market share in the US if not necessarily through federal authorization.
“You’ll see a lot of the same things you’re seeing in France and other countries, but it probably won’t necessarily play out the same way, in terms of federal action versus state action, ” Bill Abolt, deputy director, said. Chairman and Head of Energy Business of AECOM Infrastructure Consulting Company.
As state and local governments create renewable energy deployment mandates and the federal government adopts an incentive-based approach to incentivize climate technology through measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act, development, large corporations are making their own commitment to solar energy.
Target, Home Depot, Walmart and Renewable Energy
Target refurbished one of the California store with a solar garage this spring. Home Depot is working to have all of its stores use only renewable energy by 2030, while Walmart hopes to achieve this by 2040. These efforts will not come solely from energy production. renewable energy on-site — procuring renewable energy from utility-scale projects is one of the strategic options for meeting these goals — but investing in solar power for door-to-door locations products will become more popular.
“You have a lot of important companies that have stepped up and made commitments to renewable energy and things like that with local governments and organizations. So there’s no doubt that the investment level is high. That investment has driven the development of technology, the more cost-effective deployment of solar energy,” Abolt said.
According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the cost of solar installations has dropped by more than 60% over the past decade.
“There is no doubt that the cost curve of solar is getting better and will continue to do so. Private enterprise has done a lot, and as a result we will see more investment possibilities. more private,” said Abolt.
Global commercial real estate firm CBRE is partnering with renewable energy company Altus Power to work with clients including multiple Fortune 500 companies on solar projects.
“The top topics of interest for these corporations today are decarbonisation, energy efficiency and resilience,” said Lars Norell, co-founder and co-CEO of Altus Power. energy. “The number one answer is clean energy on site,” he said.
Norell says businesses of all sizes can now consider renewable energy projects.
“What Walmart, IKEA or Amazon do, smaller home businesses come to us and say ‘Should we do the same thing? Can our roofs keep the solar energy?’ The answer in most cases is absolutely yes,” he said.
Public expectations and pressure from the board are key factors in why large corporations tend to act faster than smaller ones when it comes to renewable energy. “In many cases, smaller companies don’t have a large audience that expects them to act, but many of them are acting out of self-interest or because they want to save money,” says Norell.
Solar power and commercial real estate
Solar garages and rooftop solar are the main solar designs being adopted in the commercial real estate world.
“We found that there was virtually no argument around the wisdom of putting solar in parking lots,” says Norell. “We believe rooftop solar and parking lot solar will be easier for most communities to not only accept but see as a way to generate clean energy. “
In recent years, more and more solar projects have been built on commercial parking lots, and state governments have created incentives specifically for solar parking lots. , including the 2018 Massachusetts Solar Renewable Goals and the Maryland Energy Administration’s Solar Roof Grant Program. to encourage the use of solar garages and garages, with EV chargers provided on site. It has provided up to $250,000 per solar parking project, giving commercial businesses an incentive to invest in the projects.
“Electricity increases and more government support, like in France where they are required to do so, we think will mean more parking,” Norell said.
Commercial retail centers and logistics buildings are the main targets of solar energy. Commercial retail centers, such as grocery stores, consume higher levels of energy and often have large parking lots. Logistic buildings such as warehouses with large roofs are the optimal place to deploy rooftop solar.
Altus Power forecasts that most buildings will have solar systems within the next decade.
With electric vehicle production and consumption on the rise — The International Energy Agency reports that U.S. electric car sales have doubled their market share to 4.5% by 2021, reaching 630,000 electric vehicles sold — solar-powered commercial businesses become more profitable for consumers who need electric vehicle chargers in parking lots.
The same goes for warehouses and distribution centers.
“Once we start to master having fleets of electric vans and trucks, all those trucks will go to those logistics buildings, and that’s a great location to install the fleet chargers, so that when the truck is busy… we take the opportunity to charge its battery,” says Norell. “We can charge it with clean electricity because we’re generating solar energy on the roof, and that will then be put into the truck.”
