Is it possible to have a carport that not only protects your car but charges it with solar energy? The idea isn’t as futuristic as it sounds, as UK company Romag has developed the PowerPark, according to a news item “Solar Carport Gives Plug-Ins a Charge.” With electric and hybrid vehicles becoming increasingly popular, the PowerPark applies only to these cars, which currently rely on fossil fuels to run. By having cars run on solar energy instead of fossil fuels, these electric vehicles would be truly “green” vehicles that, when parked in a PowerPark, would be charged up on electricity to run.
Romag’s PowerPark is essentially a metal carport topped with photovoltaic cells – also known as solar panels – that can change an electric vehicle. Although these carports have potential to be used as home carports, the PowerPark has been designed for a commercial parking lot, in which users for a supermarket or shopping center can park their cars in a PowerPark and have their cars recharge with solar energy as they shop. A solar carport would be linked to an electric grid for power and, so far, the introduction of the carports wouldn’t need to disrupt or change the current electric grid. Each solar carport has a 1.5 kilowatt peak and an individual parking space, according to the article, could generate 1,100 kilowatts of electricity annually. Already, the PowerPark has been in use in Romag’s headquarters in the UK.
In terms of protecting the car, as is the original purpose of a carport, these PowerPark carports appear to have the same type of protection offered by an ordinary metal carport with the bonus of an added electric charge. As these solar power carports have the potential to help reduce significantly greenhouse emissions, is it possible that within the next decade that PowerPark or other solar carports will become common? Perhaps, as electric and hybrid vehicles become more affordable and more people become more “green” conscious, solar power carports may seem like a logical and affordable option for charging and protecting cars.
