Live data from Hacker News

South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

reutersconnect.com

81–90 of 229 posts

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#81
post #6

The solar covered parking lots near me are great because they also serve as cover for your car when it’s hot and sunny. It’s not the most cost effective way to install solar, though. A tall structure designed to put the panels high up in the air and leave a lot of space for cars is a lot more expensive than normal rooftop solar or even field setups. This is basically a way to force some of the cost of clean energy as…

A better version for shade and city beautification is to force trees around/within the parking lot.

A couple other comments warned of bird poop danger. But the smart entrepreneur will add a drive thru car wash next to the parking lot.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#83

I really want America to get on board with this. Getting people to not drive is a nearly impossible task given how slow cities move to change the codes, so if we have to have parking lots, put them to use.

If you want America on board, get the people on board. Tell them why it's a good idea to stop driving their car. I'm not saying this to be snarky, but that's what it's going to take.

I try. But then they point to the inevitable inconvenience of not driving. Chicken and the egg.

As an aside, your username reminds me it’s about time for another rewatch of cowboy bebop

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#84
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?

Dedicated parking areas are hugely inefficient in the first place from an economic perspective, so this is at least getting some double duty out of them.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#85

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.

Your options are basically Somalia. Instead of "authoritarian" governments issuing "mandates" you'll get to deal with warlords that will just kill you, take your land, and do whatever you want with it.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a reason centrally planned economies are abject failures. People are incapable of anticipating all of the cascading effects of a "sensible" policy

Well, yeah, that's how we got cities with a huge amount of land dedicated to economically parasitic parking lots in the first place.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#88
post #80
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lot is always cheaper, as long as the land is cheap. And in most of the US, even land that isn't all that cheap is often best left as a parking lot, economically: You can easily speculate with a parking lot with minimal investment, as the taxes for the empty lot are often low. See all the midwestern cities whose downtowns are 30-40% surface parking. There are all kinds of bad externalities caused by seas of aspha…

I imagine land is more expensive in South Korea than in the US.

Because they do things like this (Green belt).

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#89
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?

It doesn’t really matter if there’s land that would theoretically be more ideal if the value of the power generated pays for the infrastructure buildout. The best land for solar panels is the land you can build on now.

Re: South Korea Mandates Solar Panels for Public Parking Lots

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a reason centrally planned economies are abject failures. People are incapable of anticipating all of the cascading effects of a "sensible" policy

Well, yeah, that's how we got cities with a huge amount of land dedicated to economically parasitic parking lots in the first place.

That seems like a confirmation of the point more than a refutation. The parking lot problem is not a free market phenomenon, it's a result of regulation's unintended side effects.
Post reply on HN