Tarps & Canopies Info

Could the future of electricity for some of the nation’s largest cities be with solar carports? As seen in previous posts, this solar power carport design includes large solar panels mounted onto carports. The solar panels then provide electricity for the area from the sun and act as an ordinary carport in the process. Las Vegas is the next location to plan on using solar carports across the city to meet solar energy goals. As mentioned in a recent news item, these solar powered carports are going to start at a rec center called Stupak Community and expand to other locations in the city in an effort to have 10 percent renewable power by 2011. The more far-off goal for Las Vegas is to have 25 percent renewable power by 2025.

At Stupak, as mentioned in the article, the project will start off with three sets of solar panels mounted across 34 carports. The goal for opening this structure is in the winter of this year. While Las Vegas has already built a “green’ building, the solar panels in the city are designed to save $300,000 per year in electricity costs and to generate electricity to 170 homes, with 950 kilowatts of power total. Other benefits include reducing the city’s carbon footprint by removing 949 tons of carbon monoxide currently generated by the city.

As discussed in previous posts, the natural design of a flat or peaked roof carport, or portable garage, is an ideal surface for mounting solar panels. But, why carports? Instead of having separate solar panels on the outside of a building, the carports with solar panels can be exposed to the sun and they can function like normal carports. And, as mentioned in posts regarding cars being charged by solar power from a carport, these solar power carports could charge electric cars and power other buildings by solar energy at the same time.