Following the announcement of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, a renewable energy expert is warning the government of a missed clean energy opportunity in solar energy in car parks.
Damian Baker, the founder and managing director of UK-based RenEnergy, is drawing attention the 1456GWh of annual solar energy potential identified by an ongoing research project commissioned by the organisation. This could be provided by solar car ports over 629,900 suitable spaces across commercial car parks and is the equivalent electricity required to meet the average yearly consumption of around 404,000 UK homes.
The call comes as the Bill cited clean energy projects that help achieve clean power by 2030, including wind and solar power, would be prioritised for grid connections. It also cited that reform would help accelerate development and grid connections for industrial sites and commercial property like data centres.
With planning concerns and opposition to renewable energy production sites often cited as obstacles to rollout, Baker is arguing car park solar installations address challenges that can be associated with ground arrays in countryside and farmland. The solar PV canopies above parking spaces that provide energy to adjoining businesses as well as EV charging make use of land that is already used for parking and see planning and DNO approval in around 8 weeks.
Providing a renewable and reliable energy source for businesses, Baker is also arguing that these installations can also reduce the offtake of businesses to provide more resilience while the grid is being upgraded.
Baker said, “We know that the success of the Clean Power strategy and rollout requires measure that will speed up the planning process and get infrastructure and facilities connected to the grid as quickly as possible. The government and businesses, however, are missing an open goal that sits in commercial car parks.
“While wider infrastructure projects are being planned, constructed and connected, car park installations could represent a quicker route for the UK, with planning often taking only 8 weeks to go through. Businesses can also help with alleviating pressure on the grid with battery energy storage as part of the installation, providing a decentralised source of energy while the grid and production infrastructure is upgraded over the coming years.”
The ongoing academic research project uses Google satellite imaging to evaluate the car parks across the UK that are suitable for installing solar carports. The investigation has already uncovered vast quantities of suitable parking spaces across England and Scotland in hotels, golf clubs, schools, colleges, universities hospitals, airports, amusement parks, sports centres and stadiums. Baker suggests this “only scratches the surface” and expects that hundreds of thousands more could identifies across the entire UK and other commercial car parks such as train stations, service stations, supermarkets and retail parks.
Baker adds, “The Clean Power 2030 strategy has already mentioned solar car port as a potential route to explore, asking for evidence of their effectiveness and potential for energy production. We are demonstrating we already have significant evidence of the opportunity and are continuing to find more. As part of the move to clean energy, solar installations on carparks could represent the quickest route that maximises energy security for businesses and households while producing renewable energy.”
