Benefits of Commercial Solar Parking Canopies
Installing solar parking canopies can be an attractive alternative to placing solar panels on rooftops or in green space. Along with cleaner energy use, this technology provides a variety of other benefits to business owners. In fact, retailers, employers, and environmentally conscious manufacturers are realizing that solar parking canopies are a great way to go solar and attract customers, benefit employees, and meet LEED criteria or green initiatives.
In this blog, we’ll discuss why solar canopies and EV charging stations can be a good investment option for your business and the advantages they offer, such as:
- Promotion of green energy
- Efficient use of space with extra shade and heat protection
- Helping meet demand for solar powered EV charging
- Attracting more customers and encouraging longer visits
Promotion of Green Energy
Everyone likes to see solar panels in their community — they reduce pollution and conserve resources in their surrounding areas. Solar canopy installations help promote the use of green energy, and show the next generation that cleaner energy solutions are achievable. Highly visible solar energy solutions can be a constant reminder to customers, employees, and the public that protecting the environment is important. Solar canopies can be a great public relations tool and a way for companies to differentiate themselves from competitors that don’t use green energy.
Efficient Use of Space with Extra Shade and Heat Protection
Oftentimes, when solar is installed on a flat rooftop, no one sees it. It is doing a lot of good up there, but it misses the intrinsic educational and promotional aspects of a highly visible solar installation, like a solar parking canopy. Ground-mounted solar panels can be very visible, but utilizing existing parking lots can be a more efficient use of space, especially where green space is limited.
When you walk through a big open parking lot in the summer, you likely experience the blinding sun with little or no shade, scorching asphalt, and a hot car. But what if the same parking lot was covered in solar panels? It would be shady and cooler, and it would be a perfect place to charge your electric vehicle.
Help Meet Increasing Demand for Solar-Powered EV Charging
More EV charging stations are needed in our communities to meet the demands of EV drivers. Many EV drivers stop to eat, shop or work where they can find an EV charger. While any EV charger will do, the most eco-friendly EV charging stations are solar-powered. Solar parking canopies + EV charging stations offer EV drivers the best fuel source in terms of reduced carbon emissions, air pollution, and hazardous waste from conventional grid power generation. If EV drivers have a choice between grid-powered or solar-powered car charging, we’re betting they would choose solar-powered.
Attract More Customers and Encourage Longer Visits
A 2021 Michigan Tech study indicates store owners could increase profits by providing solar PV-EV charging for their customers with four key benefits:
- Increasing customer comfort by providing parking lot shade and precipitation shelter
- Providing a path for green consumerism
- Incentivizing preferential shopping by owners of plug-in hybrids and all-electric EVs
- Increasing customers’ shopping time and money spent at the store to enable more charging
Trust LightWave with Your Solar Canopy Installation
Solar parking canopies and EV charging stations are great additions to workplaces, shopping centers, community centers, and more. LightWave Solar has over 10 years of experience building solar parking canopies and EV charging stations for companies and municipalities across the Southeast.Contact LightWave Solar to get started on your solar parking canopy project. Book your consultation today!
