Australia

(ii) Car Park Integrated Canopies

It was reported earlier that SKYShades has programmed to install car park structures with Power Plastic panels over 1000 cars at the Orlando International Airport. Prior to gaining the necessary County approvals, there have been requests for SKYShades to build a ‘sample’ number of these structures to carry out testing of electricity reticulation and to ensure that all safety measures have been conformed with.

Greg Norman has just completed his new office building just south of Orlando, and he was anxious to have SKYShades install covered parking with Power Plastic panels over a seven-bay parking area. Hence, we have now started the process of building a single-bay structure with integrated solar panels. He has indicated that on completion, he will call a press conference with political dignitaries to announce the first parking bay structures with the capability of generating ‘clean’ ‘green’ electricity. Of course, media releases of this nature will greatly assist the ‘roll-out’ of these technologies.



(From left to right): Dan Williams, V-P Konarka; Rick Hess, President-CEO Konarka; Greg Norman, Director SKYShades; Barry Maranta, President SKYShades; Joe McKenna, Exec. V-P SKYShades

At the same time, SKYShades will be able to involve the power authorities with this prototype structure to ensure compliance with all regulations. Once this process has been completed, the contract with the Orlando Airport car park owner will proceed as planned.
This contract to cover 1000 cars has been set more as a ‘loss leader’ to allow us to market to Airports throughout the world, all of whom have significant car parking areas without any form of protective cover.
Indeed, discussions have already taken place with Major Airport owners regarding the parking opportunities at 30(+)Airport facilities world-wide.

SKYShades has commenced a PR campaign targeted to the international Airports’ Industry alerting operators as to the enormous potential each has in generating increased cash-flow from the covered car bays, plus their capacity to supply ‘clean’ ‘green’ electricity into their local power grids. Our slogan is:

‘EVERY PARKING LOT IS A POTENTIAL SOLAR FARM’

A word about ‘SOLAR FARMS’ :-

Such is the world’s fixation about developing renewable energy sources, conventional solar panels have been installed in open fields to create ‘solar farms’ in many countries of the world, but most prominently in Spain, Germany and more recently in the U.S. and Australia. These solar farms may occupy anywhere up to 50 hectares in area, and have required capital investments by governments and corporations of many millions of dollars. Apart from these considerable installation expenses, they demand huge on-going maintenance costs…plus the fact that large tracts of land have been rendered useless. As the manufacture of conventional solar panels involves a cocktail of non-biodegradable minerals such as arsenic and cadmium, the long-term impact on the environment surrounding these solar farms is now being viewed with the same disquiet as the manufacturing plants themselves.

The irony is that all this is in the name of ‘clean’ renewable energy!

Hence, it is SKYShades’ belief that once the world learns to appreciate that there is an alternative solar energy conversion source which utilizes biodegradable, organic photovoltaic panels, and which can easily be affixed to aesthetically-pleasing tension membrane canopies, man’s challenge to create a lasting renewable energy source is nearer at hand.

Please note the two types of ‘solar panel’ car parking structures which are coming on to the market to capture the sun’s energy and act as a renewable energy source.





The top photo depicts a recently-installed structure in Henderson, Nevada. These traditional solar panels cover 300 car bays at a cost of $7million- or $23,000 per bay.

The render below is a SKYShades Integrated Building Solar System which bonds the Power Plastic panels to our PVC membranes at a cost significantly lower then the cost outlined above for traditional solar panels.