Small and Medium scale Solar PV first became popular as a roof mounted enterprise for residential and office buildings because the roofs were underutilized space, faced little acquisition costs and the array which was perceived to be unsightly would be out of sight. Costs of installing on the roof were in line with other roof repairs or installations (Radio antennas, A/C coolers, Elevator machine rooms) and with expensive arrays modules, costs of roof install was not important. With Modules prices headed for $1/Watt and now less then 20% of total system costs, it’s time to revisit the roof assumption and see if soft costs can be reduced. Baja carports has an attack on that problem with their series of semi-custom carports and cantilevered install solutions.
Baja Construction has dedicated a complete division towards semi-custom solar carports for small and medium installations. Constructing over parking lots has a lot of merit and will likely become a significant solution for many office buildings. Reasons for the rise of Carport installs vs rooftop installs include:
1) Land acquisition is minimal because commercial and industrial buildings own the parking lots usually.
2) Construction of a carport is relatively low cost because so much of the work can be done at ground level, off of bakers scaffolds
or using a work truck or cherry picker.
3) Material inflow is easy because material can be depoted at one end of the parking lot while construction occurs at the other.
If work is performed over weekends, evenings or holidays it can have almost zero impact to facility operations.
4) Customer coordination is simple because very few manhours are needed inside of the facility, most of the work can be done in the parking lot
meaning customer security requirements, escorts, building access are all minimal, except for final electrical hookup or control installation.
5) Shading of cars reduces wear and tear and insurance losses from sun, hail.
6) Cover provides somewhat protected access into the building which reduces strain on workers during periods of heavy rain.
7) Parking lots provide plenty of efficient area for PV with approximately 2 KW per parking space, which can easily be half of any workers power requirements.
8) Inspectors like this because it’s easier to inspect the work then getting up on a large building roof.
This approach to PV Racking is a favorite with managers because of the relative cost advantage. Systems can be installed for between 50-75 cents/watt on reasonable sized installs. This compares nicely against roof installations. With an Advantage like this, Baja is well positioned to take advantage of the market.
