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The upfront costs aren't negligible, they're the only reason I don't have solar panels on my roof right now. It's not just panels themselves, it's installation and wiring and making sure it plays nice with grid power and making sure it won't catch fire and all that. They aren't huge costs and they're certainly recoverable in the long run, but that doesn't mean much if you can't afford to get started.
Not saying that there's no upfront cost, but in the US people buy 60k dollar cars on credit that lose half their value in the first year or two.
So I think it's more a problem of priorities, and choosing loss of value over future profit.
You say it like that's a common thing in the US. Maybe it's more common here than elsewhere but it's not typical. Most people who buy cars don't get new cars.
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/average-car-price/
https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/solar/cost-of-solar-panels/
Maybe it's time to buy a cheap car and solar panels.
What I'm saying is that a lot of people don't have the money for new cars period, it's not like they can just choose to forego one year and pick themselves up some solar panels. Even if they have enough to afford a used car, it's not typical for people to have five figures of liquid capital just... around for non-necessities. Even if you can get credit for a loan, that's another monthly note that you might not be able to afford even with the energy bill savings, if your entire paycheck is already insufficient to cover necessities. The people who can afford to burn money on new cars are very much the exception.
Maybe, but when I got quotes for solar it was much higher cost than that, and only to replace half my electricity use
While I live on the north, they estimated based on the rated capacity of the panels, as if the amount of sun doesn’t matter
Up-front costs are a factor but can't be the only one. Although I'm focused on the solar over parking lot case specifically.
Parking lots are a bit of a puzzle. This is speculation, but I suspect the slow uptake has a lot to do with the contractual relationship between the landowner and the business operator. Sometimes businesses own their own land, but I think in the US this is more an exception than the rule. These can be decades-long lease agreements that stipulate how the land can be used and what can be installed, and I bet that the installation of power infrastructure would have to be hammered out in a renegotiation with each party trying to get an advantage over the other.
I think that is incredibly likely to be another factor