Installing solar panels over large parking lots in Toronto could produce 2.5 times more electricity than what is currently being produced by the polluting Portlands gas plant on the Toronto waterfront.
That’s the finding of a new OCAA report that looks at the potential for solar installations on the more than 7,000 large (80 spots or more) parking lots scattered across the city, assuming half the area of these lots is covered by solar panels. Read about it in today’s Toronto Star newspaper.
The huge potential to turn these asphalt expanses into power production centres comes with many benefits, from helping Toronto meet its climate reduction goals, to reducing heat radiated from these paved surfaces, to producing power to charge EVs onsite. It’s even good for the cars parked under the panels, with shade for vehicles on hot summer days, and less ice and snow accumulation in winter.
It is also, of course, a far healthier way to meet our energy needs than burning fossil gas. By allowing us to phase-out use of the Portlands Gas-Fired Generating Station, we can eliminate one of the city’s biggest sources of fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, pollutants that contribute to asthma, heart disease and other health problems.
We need the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and Toronto Hydro to work together to make it attractive for parking lot owners to develop solar on their properties. France is aiming to produce solar power on half its parking lots by 2028. There is no reason Toronto can’t do the same.
Unfortunately, at the present, neither Toronto Hydro nor the IESO are willing to pay parking lot owners to provide solar electricity to Toronto Hydro’s grid. This doesn’t make sense.
We must offer large parking lot owners a fair market price for solar power. This would incentivize what is currently a huge missed opportunity to make our air cleaner, and to meet local electricity demand without expensive transmission system upgrades or expanding gas plants.
What you can do
Please contact Mayor Chow and the CEOs of the IESO (Lesley Gallinger) and Toronto Hydro (Jana Mosley). Ask them to work together to develop a plan to promote the installation of solar panels on Toronto’s large open air parking lots, including a standard offer price for the supply of solar electricity to Toronto Hydro’s grid.