Seems a pretty solid use of space, if you're gonna have all this paved space for cars anybow why not keep them cool and generate power at the same time?
Technology
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Fuck cars, but this is how you deploy solar.
I’ve been saying this since the whole solar road bullshit started.
Stupid cities required parking be built at each building, there should require solar over that parking next.
Absolutely. The solar road and rail things are just startups trying to make some quick cash. The real solution is to add shade with solar and put it on top of buildings. Even fields of solar is good, you can use a small amount of space for massive gains. It's all push back from the right, who are in the pockets of billionaires, otherwise it's a simple problem to solve.
Or you could just build a multi level parking space.
Why waste so much space for only ground level?
They could rent and so much land for developers to use instead of just one. Weird things the US does...
The US is indeed backwards.
If it was common practice to put solar panels over every big parking lot in the US, renewables could pull their weight so much better.
Would even reduce fuel usage, as you don't need to cool down your mobile oven after heating up in the sun
And the cars would stay nice and cool!
They have solar over the six flags lots nearest to me too, definitely makes walking in the parking lot more comfortable and saves the car from going into oven mode!
The solar wave is coming to the US. It makes too much financial sense for misinformation to overcome. Fuck big oil!
On a cloud-free day with ideal sun angles, that's a theoretical max of 60MWh/day. Just to be conservative, let's go with half that on average over the year. That's ~11TWh/year. Yeah, that should handle a couple of large amusement parks.
And while it was an investment to do, they essentially just zeroed one of their largest bills. Why isn't everyone with a large parking lot doing this again?
Because most of their money isn't liquid they can't actually afford it
If it made financial sense, any bank would give a loan for a project whose generation offset a greater cost than the monthly payment. Assuming decent business history.
The companies that sell these projects likely partner with some financial institutions to offer loans.
So I don’t think this is a liquidity issue.
They need solar on the lines to every rollercoaster. Including the one that kills people lol... Not lol. I rode the X2 and its fine. But people who are susceptible to high Gs should not ride it.
As of today, "the one that kills people" can soberly be rejoined with "which one?"
I meant brain injury :
https://time.com/article/2026/09/29/six-flags-x2-roller-coaster-linked-to-brain-damage/
One of them died from the brain injury, so it counts.
Basted on the east coast parks, the solar probably brings in more money than the park :)
Closest thing we've got to solar freakin' roadways.


