What's takes up a lot of space that is usually wasted? If you guessed parking lots you're right! Of course the title of the article gives it away, but oh well. I've read a couple stories similar to this and it seems that it's catching on.

It started out with one person thinking "A parking lot would be a great place to mount a lot of solar panels". And so the idea was born. Environ Solar International is hoping to transform these gigantic wastes of space into energy plants.

The design calls for 'trees' which are 12 feet high and each have 1000 square feet of solar panels mounted on top. Each 'tree' is about 32' x 32' (for 1000 sq. feet). That means that.... each one of these trees is capable of pumping out 9KW (by my calculations)!

What does this mean for businesses though? Well, for one they could completely offset their electricity bill by installing solar panels on their parking lot. Can you imaging how much power a Wal-Mart parking lot would produce? Heck, they'd probably produce enough power to make some money from it as well.

In the future these solar panels could also be used for people with electric cars to plugin. Kind of like a parking meter, put in $3 for an hour and you're car will be charged for an hour. Now there's a business idea...

Of course there's also the shade that they provide. No longer will you have to get into a burning car when you get out of the store in the summer.

Retail parking lots aren't the only place that these solar panels could be mounted either. The industrial district has huge buildings with lots of flat roofs which would be perfect for these.

On a side note, we just had a new Zellers open up near the house which is using 2 20 foot wind generators to generate electricity. It's great to see that companies realise that renewable energy can be a huge asset.

Have you seen one of these parking lots? Or have you seen a local business that has implemented some renewable energy? I'd love to hear about them.

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