Solar Potential on Car-parking Surfaces Around the City of Perth

On the back of a recent article referred by the Committee for Perth looking at the level of land used for parking in cities, our elementcolab team took up the challenge do some quick ideating on the opportunity for solar potential on car parking surfaces around the City of Perth, only from an available space and concept perspective.

Sure, it’s only an idea and there are plenty of constraints and opportunities from engineering, design, regulatory, economics and many more perspectives, but ideas can lead to opportunities.

With over 400,000 sqm of car parking surface in the City of Perth alone, holding the potential to generate over 300,000 kwh/day when the sun is shining ☀️, this land whilst continuing to provide parking for vehicles has the potential to also contribute to our growing power demands as hot days and month stretch longer.

The potential output from the 4 largest carparks in the City could supply over 3000 homes with power each day using the Australian average daily consumption of 18kwh. As we move into our new energy future, creative use of existing infrastructure is going to be critical to ensuring a balanced approach to the energy mix.