Structural Analysis and Design of Solar Car Park in College of Engineering-Dawadmi: A Move Toward Energy Efficient Campus

The increasing popularity of renewable and sustainable energy alternatives has opened the venue for more innovative as well as intuitively available options. Solar car park is one such possibility that not only provides shade to the parked cars but also utilizes the available roof space for the purpose of energy harvesting. This study proposes the implementation of a solar car park system in the College of Engineering located in Dawadmi that makes the existing parking lot a center for solar energy through which it can be stored and can serve as a potential source for supply of clean and renewable energy. Various load cases (including dead, live, wind, and seismic loads) are applied to the computer model of the existing parking steel structure. Saudi building code is used as a guideline to model the loadings. The results indicate that the existing structure is capable of withstanding the additional dead loads coming from the installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels. Further, the economic analysis carried out suggests that the installation of PV systems will make the College of Engineering premises fully energy sufficient. The cost of the PV systems will be recovered over a period of twenty-four months.