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South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

reutersconnect.com

21–30 of 229 posts

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#21
post #14

Authoritarian Asian countries being authoritarian as usual. Wouldn't mind putting up panels if I could sell and use the power. But fuck governments telling property "owners" what they can or can't do.

A mandate for renewable energy is authoritarian now? What? This is a great initiative.

The key is in the presence of the word "mandate".

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#23
post #3

It seems inefficient to put solar panels over parking areas as it requires significant amount of structure which costs a lot more than shade it creates is worth. Especially compared to how much less structure is needed on more remote solar farms. Maybe I'm just using American mindset where there is lots of open land that is good for solar generation? Perhaps not true in Korea?

South Korea has a population density of 507/km² [1]

For comparison, the San Francisco Bay Area has a population density of 430/km² [2]

I doubt they have vast tracts of undeveloped land. And while solar panels can replace agricultural land or wooded areas, doing so isn't always a big political win.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#24
Maybe some WX nerds on HN can answer, but uh... would this help with reducing convection cells that appear above large parking lots? I can look at radarscope during summer and see them roiding up over really large parking lots in my region. Do solar panels help reduce this 'heat island' effect?

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#25
post #14

Authoritarian Asian countries being authoritarian as usual. Wouldn't mind putting up panels if I could sell and use the power. But fuck governments telling property "owners" what they can or can't do.

A mandate for renewable energy is authoritarian now? What? This is a great initiative.

Yes, it is.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#26

Authoritarian Asian countries being authoritarian as usual. Wouldn't mind putting up panels if I could sell and use the power. But fuck governments telling property "owners" what they can or can't do.

The idea of an 'owner' doing whatever they want on 'their' property is ridiculous. They bought that land with restrictions and an understanding that it was part of a regulatory framework. Should an 'owner' be able to set up an industrial chemical plant in the middle of a city without any regulation? How about an open pit mine? A gun range with no regulation? Should I be able to create a massive speaker system pointed at your house next door to drive you away with no consequences? All actions are actually interactions. Everything someone does on their property has impacts to others. We give 'owners' a lot of leeway but that shouldn't be unlimited. Requiring things like solar on roofs, or gutters on roofs, or restricting roof uses, etc etc are all valid concepts. It can, and should, be debated how far those regulations should go but 'get your government off my land' is never a good argument.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#27

This is the kind of thing that every western ( or “rich” ) government should have mandated years ago. The best time was years ago, the second best time… We see the results of initiatives like this in BC, Canada. About 10 years ago they passed a law that when any government building is getting a renovation of any kind, public EV chargers must be built in the parking lot. The result is that every single town without ex…

> This is the kind of thing that every western ( or “rich” ) government should have mandated years ago. If it's cost effective there's no need to mandate it. If it's not cost effective but you want it anyway, you can explicitly subsidize it instead of mandating it. Does South Korea do mandated parking minimums like I hear is common here in the US? That would tell whether this is a tax on business property in general,…

> If it's not cost effective but you want it anyway, you can explicitly subsidize it instead of mandating it.

Or, as happened in actual reality, you tell the owners they have to put it in place. Imagine that - the two weirdly specific things you came up with aren’t actually the only two options. Who would’ve thunk.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#28
post #3

It seems inefficient to put solar panels over parking areas as it requires significant amount of structure which costs a lot more than shade it creates is worth. Especially compared to how much less structure is needed on more remote solar farms. Maybe I'm just using American mindset where there is lots of open land that is good for solar generation? Perhaps not true in Korea?

I'm an American, and it seems like a great use of land to me. This sort of a policy is particularly sensible in areas where it's hot, and there are extensive parking lots next to places that are mostly active during the day.

Instead of just having a heat island, you generate power to run AC in the associated buildings, and you also get shade for the parked cars.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#29

This is the kind of thing that every western ( or “rich” ) government should have mandated years ago. The best time was years ago, the second best time… We see the results of initiatives like this in BC, Canada. About 10 years ago they passed a law that when any government building is getting a renovation of any kind, public EV chargers must be built in the parking lot. The result is that every single town without ex…

> This is the kind of thing that every western ( or “rich” ) government should have mandated years ago. If it's cost effective there's no need to mandate it. If it's not cost effective but you want it anyway, you can explicitly subsidize it instead of mandating it. Does South Korea do mandated parking minimums like I hear is common here in the US? That would tell whether this is a tax on business property in general,…

Thinking about it from an individual (not business) point of view, the upfront capital won’t be repaid for 10-years or more and does little to change the value of the lot. The lot value is probably most dictated by location and capacity. Solar does nothing to affect location, and may even harm capacity. Parking lot customers might choose a lot of its shaded, but ultimately it’s a captive market due to location.

If I owned the lot, I could take on no-risk (which may be why the lot was purchased to begin with), or take on a 6-figure investment that could bankrupt me if the demand for the lot vanished. (I suppose in that case you’d at least be making money on selling power back to the grid.)

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