Solarpunk

I don’t think it is intentional on OP’s part, but this is really well-disguised fossil fuel propaganda. Carport solar is way more expensive than ground-mounted, and it isn’t viable for utility-scale projects. Should we do carport solar? Absolutely! But we also really need utility scale solar.

And if you put it on marginal farm land and make the ground cover pollinator-friendly, it actually improves yields on nearby farms without any real loss, since that land wasn’t great for growing food anyway. (Not to mention that cropland is about the furthest thing from a natural ecosystem)

I'm a farmer, rancher, and dairyman. This shit pisses me off. You can get dual use out of land. I can grow crops and graze cattle around and often under solar panels. The limiting factor is what the power company will allow me to sell to them. And they don't want that because bottom lines.

Seriously. The oil industry has been extracting petrochemicals from the earth while we utilize the land above for animals and crops for over a hundred years. Its not difficult. Saying that renewables are using up our land and not allowing dual utilization for other commodities is a lazy and piss poor lie that will not stop and I'm tired of it.

Stop this nonsense bullshit petro propaganda now. Alternative energy can and already does coexist with modern land management and modern farming practices. Full stop.

False dilemma.

Also that ain't no field.

Crop yields are only very slightly affected by agrivoltaics and variance tends to be reduced. Water usage is reduced a lot.

Even dedicated agrivoltaics would only cover a fraction of usually sub standard land for giant power outputs. The fear of someone plastering the environment with solar is fear mongering.

Building enough parking infrastructure to cover with panels is a waste of space (outside of America).

counterpoint - get rid of car parks and cars

Except that agrivoltaics works out being better for the crops and the panels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrivoltaics

The crops part is similar to why grass grows better under trampolines. https://youtu.be/CoDn-1rGcpk

1. yes, absolutely, we should be putting solar in car parks
2. you deploy agricultural solar panels in grazing lands where the panels act as shade for grazing animals

Some combos are beneficial for the plants bellow. Either way, any solar plant is better than coal.

Cover every dead roof that has sunshine beating down on it, yes.

But there’s an actual benefit to covering fields. Livestock can get shade and keep the grass in check for one thing.

Not going to comment on the fields, but car parks for sure. Keeps the car cool on hot days, can pack your shopping away without getting wet on rainy days, keeps snow off, etc.

I live in tbe tropics, and in the new shopping centre they built modeld off of one from a different climate they put shade cloth over the car parks so it's not dry in the rain.

Then when we have cyclones it just gets ripped apart each year.

Really should be solid roof and solar panels.

Our hospital even has snow covers over the windows despite the weather never dropping below 15 degrees c and has never snowed because they copied another southern building

This one actually grinds my gears and it is too popular around here:

@Viking_Hippie But since we will remove all individual cars, there won’t be any car parks on which to build…

Cover the corn fields that are 95% being used to produce ethanol for fuel mixture into gasoline. Replace a one-time-use fuel that takes a ton of water to produce, contributes to pesticide usage, and requires a bunch more energy for processing (and makes your car run less efficiently anyway) with fuel that can power homes, vehicles, industry, etc. starting now and lasting for decades with a one time investment into fully recyclable materials that is already pretty low cost and lowering all the time.

Both. AgroPV is a win win win.

It gives farmers an additional income stream

They can still farm the field with most Setups

Below the panels, the soil can regenerate and grow "weeds", important for bugs and small criters.

Even if they don't farm, you still get soil regeneration and solar panels leave no trace when removed.

But yeah, all the roofs, all the parking lots as well.

But it makes the beautiful parking lots ugly.

I like the vertically mounted bifacial panels.
Highly recommended for areas that get a lot of snow.

@Viking_Hippie it might become helpful to cover the fields - many crops benefit from shade these days. Higher crop yields PLUS energy harvest. Win Win. Check for Agro-Solar or Agro-PV.

You wouldn't want many carparks in the first place.