Solar carport development has also been going on in North America, as well. About a month ago, a post was put up in regards to a solar carport that had been developed in Britain by company Romag and was already in use. To refresh your memory, the British carport design is a public use carport for vehicles that relies on solar energy and an energy grid in public places, such as a parking lot, for a car to park and charge. The concept in North America, in development by IX Energy, Inc., has much of the same concept, which combines a typical carport design with solar panels and an electrical grid, and the information about this design can be read in the press release on PR Canada.
For a summary of the information in the article, the development of this carport is one of the building integrated photovoltaic applications of IX Energy Holdings and further developments include making a solar power carport more cost effective. As mentioned in the article, one option is basing the design of the solar carport on the structure of bridges to create a cost-effective model.
Another point brought up in the article is that the design of the carport, in general, makes it friendlier to becoming a solar powered structure. Carports are found in many locations, from various homes to hotel and business lot parking to commercial parking lots. Home carports can hold one or two vehicles, usually, but industrial sized carports can sometimes hold up to six cars. For an example of a large carport, Canopy Hut has a large sized Shelterlogic carport available on their website, which can also be seen here: .
Carports have flat, curved, and peaked roofs and, for a solar power carport, a peaked or flat roof would be an ideal design for solar panels. As these solar powered carport designs by IX Energy and Romag both rely on an electrical grid for power, the combination of a large carport, similar to the one displayed above, and a grid-tiered renewable energy source might mean that in the not-so-far-off future that six electric cars may be able to recharge by solar energy in a public parking lot.
