Six Flags Magic Mountain in California is building a massive canopy of solar panels over its 30-acre parking lot that will power all of the rides and offset 100% of the amusement park’s energy usage while providing shade to the cars parked beneath.
When completed, it will be California’s largest solar energy project & the world’s largest renewable energy site built by a for-profit organization.
Way to go, Six Flags!
*AND* people's vehicles will require less energy when the occupants return and try to cool them.
@darwinwoodka @erinwhalen you will only find solar over established parking lots (e.g. city owned, hospital, college) because of money.
Many flat (non structure) parking lot owners are waiting to sell the property to a developer. They don't have money.
They don't have the intent to keep using the property as a parking lot for 10+ years to allow the install to pay for itself.
These places don't invest in electric charging for the same reasons.
@erinwhalen this makes total sense even at the absurdly low electricity cost in the USA:
After all, they basically only need power during the day and they already have that massive parking lot, so might just use that and propably even ROI the cost with saved elecrticity bills if not selling surplus production into the grid.
@erinwhalen Very cool! Disneyland Paris also recently built a 50 acre one I believe https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/04/22/first-milestone-for-solar-carport-at-disneyland-in-paris/
Sounds like this is something that should become the default :)
@erinwhalen The article says "more [solar] than any other US organization"...
I would check that fact, daily news...
#DisneyWorld produces the larges amount of #solar in the US. They're also getting ready to finish TWO MORE 75MW arrays in Polk and Gilchrest counties this year - adding to their already huge solar footprint of ~150MW.
#DailyNews states #SixFlags will have 20.8MW annually with their install. Nowhere near #Disney's!
@jann - thanks for pointing that out! I was curious to learn more and found this link about the Disney World solar installations: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2022/04/disney-doubles-ways-to-power-the-magic-with-two-new-solar-arrays/
If the amusement parks of the world are trying to outcompete each other with the size of their solar installations, I call that a win. 😁✌️
Picture what’s possible when 40 percent of the energy supplied to The Most Magical Place on Earth is generated by the sun. Building on today’s exciting launch of Disney Planet Possible and just in time to celebrate Earth Month, Walt Disney
@erinwhalen Great news, and a win all around for Magic Mountain energy needs, a cleaner Earth, and drivers who can return to cars which are a bit cooler.
If we gotta concrete over large swaths of land to park cars, there may as well get some green energy out of the proposition.
Solar covers seems like a no-brainer for parking lots, at least in sunny places.
The posts supporting this are appalling, i guess it goes some way to explaining why we collapse civilisation, when nonsesense like this is supported.
This is like celebrating an Airport declaring itself "carbon neutral" because it slapped up a few solar panels.
We have a decade to reduce our emissions to near zero or face rhe very real threat of collapsing civilsiation and we expend our miniscule sliver of emissions building rubbish like that helps accelerate the destruction while the planet burns and floods around us?
No one should be driving at all, let alone to do things that are not life saving or necessary. Do people not read the endless News about CO2 emsisions ? We need a 10% reduction in emissions every year, thats way more then happens under Covid, every year for a decade at least.
I guess I can use this as a case study of a green washed monstrosity and why everything gets worse.
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