One thing I really, really, really, really wish wouldn't happen is getting into a car on a hot day, such that the interior temperature of the car is just south of "volcanic". One of the ways this could be avoided is very simple - park in the shade! Problem is, most parking lots are very short on shade and very long on solar exposure.
That's why I noticed this article about the just-up-the-coast solar power installation at Anne Arundel Community College:
Anne Arundel Community College Installs Large Solar Carport System
I hadn't seen these before, probably because they aren't exactly in the right location, solar-exposure wise, here on the East Coast. Such an installation seems much more suited for sunnier climes, such as the U.S. Southwest, or many tropical islands.
But thinking about it; if a large enough parking lot, such as for a strip shopping mall, could be equipped with sufficient solar power parking lot shades to generate power to run the air conditioning for the stores on hot summer sunny days (when peak power is demanded, and currently this requires bringing on-line the older, less efficient, and frequently more polluting coal plants), then power demand would be reduced and so would greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, I could park in the shade and not lose half a gallon of sweat before my car air conditioner got the interior temperature down to something in the vicinity of tolerable. PLUS, shading a lot of parking lots would somewhat reduce the gasoline demands of exactly that kind of full-power car air conditioning.
So I'd like to see a lot more solar-powered parking lots!
Here's another article about a similar installation:
Tioga Unveils Largest Solar Canopy in Hawaii
Like I said, tropical islands seem somewhat logical for this kind of thing.
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