By Olivia Wynkoop | Bay City News Foundation
Newly proposed state legislation seeks to motivate companies to turn their parking lots into functional-use solar farms.
Senate Bill 49, announced during the first day of California’s new legislative session, would create a tax incentive for commercial building owners to build “solar canopies” — overhanging solar panel structures — above their large parking lots.
State Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, author of the legislation, hopes SB 49 will create more local clean energy in cities and suburbs by taking advantage of spaces capable of having solar panels above them, rather than seeking out rare and expensive plots of undeveloped land.
“That’s what makes the solar canopy concept so appealing, because it wouldn’t require any more land, it would just give parking lot owners an incentive to make dual use of…
Proposed Legislation Wants to Turn Parking Lots into Solar Energy Farms
