A zoo in Belgium turned its parking lot into one of the largest solar power plants in the world. Pairi Daiza, voted Europe's best zoo, covered 80% of its 7,000 parking spaces with 62,750 solar panels. The installation produces 20 megawatts of peak power, which is more than the entire zoo consumes. The surplus charges electric vehicles at onsite stations and sells the rest back to the grid. It's the largest solar carport in the world, and it was built on land that was already paved, over cars that were already there. Nobody had to choose between wilderness and energy production. Covering all existing US parking lots with solar panels could generate 1.7 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which would power half the country. Why aren't we funding this?
