10/17/2026
Large retail parking lots could become useful sites for solar power instead of remaining fully exposed areas of asphalt.
A typical Walmart Supercenter parking lot can cover several acres. A 5-acre lot, for example, contains roughly 20,200 square meters of space. With a carefully designed solar canopy, researchers suggest that an area of this size could potentially support around 3 megawatts of solar capacity.
Beyond generating electricity, solar canopies could provide shade for parked vehicles, reducing the amount of heat absorbed by cars and the pavement. They can also make use of land that has already been paved instead of requiring additional open land for solar development.
Under favorable conditions, a 3-megawatt solar installation could potentially generate around 4–5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Actual production would depend on factors such as panel efficiency, orientation, shading, local sunlight, and the amount of parking space that can realistically be covered.
The concept highlights an increasingly popular approach to renewable energy: instead of building solar farms on undeveloped land, use spaces that cities and businesses have already transformed.
Parking lots could become more than places to leave cars. They could also become distributed sources of clean electricity.
