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rileyoneill t1_ivni99r wrote

Reply to comment by Rokmonkey_ in In France all new large parking lots must now be covered in solar panels starting in july 2023. by BuildingBabel

The parts are fairly standardized and are a commodity product. Servicing them is not a huge deal. I have seen several of these covered parking lots here in California. 3ish acres of parking would be a 1MW system, which would generate enough energy for 3000-4000 miles of driving per hour of sunshine, if they were selling it to EV owners for 15 cents per kWh they would be selling like $150 per hour, 2500 hours per year, $350-$375k per year, on a system that was maybe $2M to build, not a bad investment, $100k per year profit after financing costs for the first 10 years.

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tomfreeze6251 t1_ivoduwz wrote

If it makes sense financially, then why aren't the parking lot owners making the decision themselves?

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Cat-in-a-small-box t1_ivojq8n wrote

But don’t the systems need to be maintained and updated semi regular? That would drive costs up after a certain time, making it less profitable.

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rileyoneill t1_ivou8do wrote

They need to be cleaned, and if something breaks they need to be fixed, but they are pretty low on maintenance.

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