Date: 03/10/2008

Agilent converts parking space into solar power station

Agilent Technologies has installed 1-megawatt solar tracking system at Agilent's Santa Rosa, Calif., campus. This is one of the large solar energy generators in that area.

Three-acre parking lot canopy structure is fitted with close to 3500 SunPower made solar panels to track the sun throughout the day. The parking lot provides both shade and solar electric power for Agilent's facility.
The design of SunPower's tracking solar system will generate up to 25 percent more energy for Agilent than a similarly sized flat, rooftop system.
Environment protecting technologies is now more than love for earth; it saves dollars and the move is also more strategic. Either as innovator or adapter, companies have to get into it at the earliest. There will be at-least some space in every building which can potentially used for solar power generation by covering either roofs or walls with the glassy solar panels. What matters is little initial investment.
No wonder if few solar companies come up with ready to fix power generating roofs and walls.

Here is what TomWerner, chief executive officer of SunPower has commented, "Converting an underutilized asset such as a parking area into a distributed power plant is a great example of how forward-thinking companies like Agilent and GE Energy Financial Services are taking advantage of today's solar technology".