Leveraging existing infrastructure to deploy distributed and community generation technologies will result in: Increased grid reliability, Reduced stress on the grid/transmission, Higher reliability local community, and Lower overall costs for electricity for local community due to avoided distribution and transmission losses. More importantly, leveraging existing infrastructure, allows us to preserve open spaces, agricultural operations, and green space.
Rooftops & Reservoirs
The total national technical potential of rooftop PV is 1,118 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity and 1,432 terawatt-hours (TWh) of annual energy generation. This equates to 39% of total national electric-sector sales.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers determined that the United States has the technical potential to install 2,116 GW of floating photovoltaic (PV) systems in the United States.
Parking Lots & Paved Areas
Parking lots are an untapped opportunity for solar installations all across the country. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, pavement makes up 35 to 50 percent of total surface area in cities, and 40 percent of that pavement is parking lots. Installing a solar canopy over an existing parking lot is simply a more efficient use of space than installing a standard ground-mounted system – when you build a solar canopy, you add more uses to the same square footage and don’t have to set aside additional space.
Brownfield & Landfill Solar
EPA estimates that there are approximately 13,000 sites and nearly 22 million acres of EPA-tracked potentially contaminated and underutilized properties nationwide. The RE-Powering approach creates a new market for these lands to address contamination and revitalize communities, while providing a sustainable land development strategy for renewables.
Brownfield sites offer an outstanding fit for the needs of a great solar project. Developing solar on landfills allows the environmental integrity of the landfill to be maintained, while moving landfill properties back into productive reuse for the community. Using solar an anchor, owners of brownfield property can secure funding to ensure property closure, or repurpose dormant land without penetrating the soil.
