The First Solar Carport in New York City Comes to Staten Island
Solar power is a growing energy source on Staten Island. Freshkills Park, already an alternative energy source from the methane harvested at the site, will be using solar power for many of its structures in the future. But the future is here at an office building on Edward Curry Avenue in Bloomfield in the form of solar panels that provide shade for your parked car. No more searching for the only tree in the parking lot, now shady parking spots are created by solar panels that are working double duty: producing energy and providing shade.
The solar panels, installed by American Solar Partners, shelter 25 cars and provide roughly 5% of the power for the 80,000 square foot office building. The office building has other energy saving and resource conserving systems that earned it an Energy Star Rating, such as occupancy sensors, LED lighting and motorized solar shades that move with the position of the sun throughout the day.
The permitting process has begun for a North Park Photovoltaic Shade Structure which will provide shade for visitors sitting on benches while also generating energy for the overhead lights throughout the parking lot.
Source: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/on_staten_island_the_carport_o.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Links to similar stories:
City requires portion of energy to come from solar: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Lancaster-CA-Becomes-First-US-City-to-Require-Solar
More on solar parking lots: http://cleantechnica.com/2010/08/03/solar-power-transforms-parking-lots-into-green-job-generators/
Solar parking meters: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/manhattan-beach-among-the-first-to-deploy-latest-generation-high-tech-parking-meters-200780051.html
