Solar-powered carports, a simple and convenient way to combine photovoltaics with architecture, have gained increasing popularity in recent years. Solar-powered carports offer excellent heat absorption, are easy to install, and are inexpensive, making full use of existing sites while providing green and environmentally friendly energy. Building solar-powered carports in factory parks, commercial areas, hospitals, schools, and other similar locations can solve the problem of high temperatures inside cars in open-air parking lots during the summer.
I. Types of Photovoltaic Carports
A photovoltaic carport mainly consists of a support system, a solar panel array, a lighting and control inverter system, a charging system, and a lightning protection and grounding system. The support system mainly includes support columns, diagonal beams fixed between the support columns, purlins attached to the diagonal beams to support the solar panel array, and fasteners for fixing the solar panel array.
Photovoltaic carport supports come in various types, but the most common types can be divided into single-column unidirectional and double-column unidirectional.
Single-column bidirectional type
In addition to being supported by pillars
There are also other support types.
Such as V-shape
N-type
X-type, etc.
II. Photovoltaic Carport Model
The scale of photovoltaic carport construction can vary greatly, from large-scale projects like the Ningbo Hangzhou Bay project, which utilizes the finished vehicle parking garage and employee parking lot of Shanghai Volkswagen's Ningbo branch, with a total installed capacity of 55MW, equivalent to the size of 20 football fields, and can park more than 20,000 vehicles.
Large photovoltaic carport
Small ones can be home-use models
Only 1-2 vehicles are parked.
A carport-type photovoltaic power station, combining a carport with solar panels, has recently been completed in Sano City, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It provides 350 parking spaces and has an installed capacity of approximately 1.1 MW. The system consists of a folded-plate roof mounted on steel columns, upon which solar panels are fixed.
Small photovoltaic carport
Photovoltaic carports can serve as part of a distributed photovoltaic project for self-consumption and grid connection of surplus electricity. They can also be integrated with charging stations and new energy electric vehicles, where the electricity generated by the photovoltaic modules is stored in batteries through charging devices or directly used to charge electric vehicles. Due to the instability of solar energy resources and the high cost of batteries, coordination with the power grid is necessary to ensure normal operation.
III. Examples
A photovoltaic carport is located within the factory premises of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (Yizhuang) and is part of the factory's distributed photovoltaic project. The parking lot has a total area of approximately 4,000 square meters, with a designed parking space area of approximately 1,620 square meters. Each parking space is 2.5 meters wide, and it can accommodate approximately 118 passenger cars. The photovoltaic carport is a single-column, unidirectional structure with a roof tilt angle of 6°.
Photovoltaic carport layout plan
The photovoltaic carport is equipped with 882 265Wp photovoltaic modules, with a total installed capacity of 233.73kWp. Every 21 modules are connected in series to form a branch circuit, which is connected to 7 33kW string inverters. Based on the average monthly total radiation of the Beijing South Suburb Meteorological Station (6.5km from the project site) over the past 30 years, it is calculated that the photovoltaic carport will generate approximately 265,000 kWh of electricity in its first year and an average of approximately 240,000 kWh of electricity per year over 25 years.
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