Council car parks could be covered with solar canopies

Council-owned car parks across Westmeath could be covered with solar panel canopies under plans to examine their potential to generate renewable energy while providing shelter for vehicles.

The proposal was put forward by Cllr Emily Wallace at the September meeting of the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District, where she called for a feasibility study into installing photovoltaic (PV) canopy structures in council-owned public car parks.

The Environment Section confirmed that Westmeath County Council have already applied for funding through the Pobal EU Just Transition START Fund for a county-wide PV feasibility study covering council-owned properties, car parks and buildings.

However, the council have yet to hear whether the funding application has been successful. Cllr Wallace said the council should lead by example by making use of large areas of existing public car parking rather than allowing solar panels to take up agricultural land.

“The public car parking space is a huge open area,” she said.

She said solar canopies could potentially generate electricity to help power council buildings while also providing shelter from increasingly hot summer weather.

She suggested the approach could provide a template for businesses, schools and other public bodies.

Cllr David Jones backed the proposal, having seen solar-panel canopies covering car parks in France.

He suggested that battery storage and electric vehicle charging points could be incorporated into the structures.”What you can do now is you can get these solar panels with the batteries underneath, and you have your electric charging infrastructure in place,” he said.

He said having the council’s own infrastructure could help avoid some of the difficulties and delays associated with connecting solar installations to the electricity grid.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea, and it’s something we should definitely pilot within some of the local authority-owned car parks,” he said. Cllr Aoife Davitt also supported the proposal, pointing to the potential for the structures to provide shade for vehicles while generating renewable energy.

She suggested the concept could potentially be extended to schools, HSE buildings and Department of Education properties.

Cllr Bill Collentine said the proposal could also support electric vehicle charging. “And especially for the car parking charging, they’d be working 24 hours a day and they’d be able to charge the car cheaper,” he said.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly confirmed that the funding application submitted to Pobal was specifically aimed at examining the feasibility of PV panels across council-owned properties.

“We have applied for just transition funding to prepare a feasibility study for that exact reason for PV panels,” she said.

The council were hoping to receive a response from Pobal during September, she added.

Ms Reilly said that, regardless of the outcome of the funding application, the council could consider carrying out the work from their funding streams in the future.

Cllr Wallace welcomed the response and said the feasibility study would allow the council to assess the potential of the idea, even if only a small number of suitable locations were identified.

She also suggested that the potential for solar canopies should be kept in mind as plans for future developments, including the swimming pool at Blackhall, progress.

Supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme