Back in France for the first time this year and notice the local shopping centre has installed this huge solar array over their car park. They passed a law a few years ago where parking has to have solar but this is the first big array I’ve seen. Have also noticed a huge uptick in wind turbines being put all along the motorways above agricultural land, which is still farmed as the turbine base takes’ up only a few square metres. Both measures are no brainers as far as I can see but we don’t see similar in Ireland. We have turbines above previously agricultural land (as far as I can tell) and big hold ups of off shore wind projects , and solar is becoming more common among households too sure, but it seems plainly obvious that these initiatives should be implemented Europe wide when you see them up close
by Environmental-Ebb613
34 comments
AFAIK, distance from an appropriate substation would be an impediment to their widespread use but it’s definitely a potential bonus use of available surface area where possible.
To implement something like this in Ireland requires 2 things. Actual functional brain government, and defeating the ever present NIMBY crowd.
That said. Having solar arrays over open air carparks actually sounds like a decent idea. Those areas are not used for anything else anyway, and with Irish weather a little protection from rain that the panels would provide would be much appreciated. Not even mentioning the fact it would produce decent amount of power on a good day in larger carparks.
We cant even cover bustops 😄
Because the infrastructure is not there (yet) to make this worth implementing. (And the only party that would be serious about it has been punished in the last election….)
Obvious answer: Our elected representatives are woefully useless at doing anything right, our planning system makes anything an absolute slog to get done quickly, NIMBY-ists would object to everything also
Cool but not factual answer: We have these already, they’re just invisible because we wanted to keep the place minimalist
sit tight, I am providing the answer:
An Coimisiún Pleanála
Someone will say that the panels are upsetting the ecological balance of the car park
For most of the car parks over there the covers were already built for sun shade, it’s only recently they’ve started adding solar panels to them.
I’m not sure you’ll see those being built here purely so we can put solar panels on them but maybe.
As for wind energy they are a decade ahead of us probably. There isn’t a lot of one off housing in rural France so it’s a lot easier to get the turbines built because most of them aren’t near homes.
Planning
As soon as someone would try everyone would put in rejections for planning because it would ruin the view or the solar panels are giving off xray and burning the eyes out of their head
etc etc ect
That’s so smart! Yes, every large infrastructure surface should be a solar panel.
We also have this in Portugal.
Some places in Ireland do have it already, more needed though.
France already has covered car parks due to heat, so adding solar panels is comparatively easy. We don’t.
France also has massive rural areas with almost zero housing, so co-locating turbines in these areas is pretty easy because there are no issues with houses being close to turbines. Again, we don’t have many areas like these.
Wicklow CoCo has a solar array in their car park.
https://preview.redd.it/7z4faa08lsjf1.png?width=1440&format=png&auto=webp&s=af6e86c0ee9143d7d9fbed31133abdbbf75dd713
Frankly, because we are all talk! Nothing ever gets done casue no one is ever held responsible, and anyone who wants to get anything done is beaten down with verbal and isolationist abuse. A cuntry of cute hoors.
Because we (supermarkets included) tend to put them on rooftops.
It would be probably attractive to companies just to do this themselves if regulation allowed and there was at least clarity on feed in rates. I don’t know if don’t exist already (regulation and clarity on feed back rates) otherwise it does seem to be a potential income stream for anyone with car parks/suitable property etc
This is typical of the Lack of understanding of the average person who votes.
These are sun shades to prevent cars getting too warm.
They are only fitted with solar panels as they are already existing.
The wind load factor in Ireland would make these exceptionally expensive.
They’re ruinin’ the landscape it’s a disgraaaaaaaace
After buying the land, doing the carpark and building the pedestrians and painting…there’s no money left!!!
Well, it has to be paid for. What goes unpaid so this can go ahead?
Covers in carparks were pretty common there for heat reasons anyway, so it’s more of an obvious thing to do.
If an exception is introduced in planning legislation for them, expect to see them pop up everywhere.
Planning. Our system is based on Common Law which massively favours objectors. The French system is based on the Napoleonic tradition which empowers the state to do whatever is needed for the overall public good (a NIMBY-friendly country it is not).
Because we’re the Irish and we’re a wee bit more awkward than other folks. We’d need to form a few committees and get a load of consultations done, then the objectors would get involved and then we’d fuddle about and discuss some nonsense that has nothing to do with solar arrays and then we’d have to pick the most expensive tender for construction, expensive enough that there would be no benefit to installing them at all.
1. We’re not short of land for solar. It can be done elsewhere, and this is happening at a rapid pace.
2. We don’t get the consistent hot weather to require covered car parks the way other countries do. In France surface level car parks will be covered regardless.
3. State policy is to reduce the amount of driving and that means also removing incentives to driving, like car parks.
Have you seen the cost of bike shelters in this country.
Do you know how much the bike shed cost us?
Looks expensive. Can the stores afford to have the costs added to their lease?
If a bike shed costs 300k, can you imagine the cost of putting a roof over a car park!
Because a car park is cheap and easy to build. It’s tarmac and some drainage.
Adding solar panels makes it no longer cheap and easy, and increases maintenance costs.
Sure, you’ll likely offset it over the years through the money gained from putting energy into the grid, but people balk at the upfront cost.
Because they’re spending/wasting all our tax money on bicycle sheds
The car parks on France already had covers over them for the sun. They have just added solar panels on to them.
Political complaints aside, not one of you has caught on to why.
**It’s because solar panels are heavy, which means you need significant support structures that go reasonably deep in the ground, and that’s expensive.**
Like, WAY more expensive then just laying tarmac. Does it make its money back eventually? Yes, but there’s a *very* large up front cost many businesses aren’t willing to shoulder without additional incentive.
The same reason we don’t do or have anything beyond the bare minimum: gross corruption and insane public apathy.
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