Greensboro Paved Parking Statistics

Using the spatial analysis tools and skills I am learning as a GIS student at UNCG, I recently totaled up the amount of paved parking within the city limits of Greensboro, North Carolina. The sum equals 10.27 square miles - yes, of paved parking within the city limits.

Using figures based on Envision Solar's solar parking lot models, I calculated that area's capacity for generating electricity when covered with solar panels. The figure was over 716,000 - homes that will be powered each and every year from the paved parking/turned solar parking lots in Greensboro. As I did not add in room between arrays, I normally publish the figure that over 500,000 homes will be powered by that area - each and every year (Greensboro only has a population of 247,000).
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This summer, I am learning more about modeling in ArcGIS and am coming up with a model to specifically place the arrays in the parking lots (again, I am basing these calculations on the dimensions of Envision Solar's designs - namely as they are the only company I found raising solar parking lots when I had the idea myself a few years back). This is proving more daunting than my initial idea as I now want to incorporate steps to digitize the parking lot boundaries as well as calculate the power outcome based on the locale's solar irradiation.

ESRI and Solar Boston have a model to do the power outcome, I believe based on location, however their model is embedded into a website application and is proving difficult to get at. With ESRI, you need a separate web server to run mapping applications and this I do not have (as of yet). Any help in to get the model is gratefully appreciated!

Another obstacle in analyzing paved parking for towns and communities is that the parcel data does not always explicitly label paved parking. This is somewhat cumbersome, but as I have time, I re-contact those cities' GIS departments and ask for assistance. This is to bring me along into a Master's degree, after all! If you happen to work for a GIS department and have paved parking that may be separated into its own layer (gdb really, with attribute table) please contact me and send it along! The more statistics we publish, the better!

I fully believe that solar parking lots are a viable solution to our climate dilemma. Most all scientists are now stating that we need to reduce carbon emissions by 40% within the next 10 years. Let's get busy! We can put some people to work with this one!