Dubai parking garage powered by solar panels

The parking garage was designed as the first environmentally-friendly parking building in the Emirate and as a zero-energy building

Spotted: Dubai gets a lot of sun, so it’s no surprise that the Emirate is working hard to make use of this resource. The newest addition to Dubai’s solar power infrastructure is a multi-storey car park in Al Garhoud, completely covered with solar panels.

The car park was built by Dubai Municipality and offers covered car parking (a necessity when summer temperatures can heat up an exposed vehicle to egg-frying temperatures) with rooftop solar panels. The 1,530 panels are connected to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s grid. Covering an area of 2,494 square metres, the panels have the capacity to generate 500 KW of power.

According to the municipality, the panels reduce the equivalent of 143.7 tons of carbon annually. In fact, the parking garage was designed as the first environmentally-friendly parking building in the Emirate and as a zero-energy building. It is conveniently located near a number of government facilities, including the Dubai Municipality building in Garhoud, for commuter use.

The parking garage’s green credentials were recently recognised with a Green Good Design Award from the European Centre for Architecture, Art Design and Urban Studies and the Chicago Athenaeum, a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. 

Solar power is growing by leaps and bounds, with a new project or technology launched almost every day. While the use of solar panels on buildings like this parking garage, or housing developments is growing rapidly, so too are technological advances such as those used to provide carbon-free mining.

Explore more: Mobility & Transport Innovations | Sustainability Innovations