The parking lot that’s keeping the lights on

Fennell Campus solar carport from above

At Mohawk College in Hamilton, next to the gym where students shed their heavy winter layers before working out, there are four rows of sleek, almost sci-fi-looking structures. Steel pillars rise to support tilted, solar-panelled roofing shielding some 40 cars – each open-air structure can accommodate 25 – and a few dishevelled students after a sudden burst of freezing rain. From a low angle, it might not look like much: just another parking lot in a city full of too many. But if you tore this one up and planted a two-acre forest in its place, it would reduce carbon emissions by the same amount. This solar carport, the largest in Ontario, helps keep the lights on in that gym.

Read the full story in Cambridge Today: The parking lot that’s keeping the lights on