One day early in 2004, Robert Noble, an architect specializing
in sustainable design, asked himself why parking lots in the
United States weren’t covered in solar panels and used to
generate clean energy. A few firms had been building carports
with solar panels for some time, but none had acquired a major
presence or branched out much beyond the residential market.
“Parking lots are this wasteland – they’re the last thing that
gets attention,” Mr. Noble said in an interview. “Here’s a
market the size of Alpha Centauri that’s never been tapped.” In
2005, Mr. Noble founded Envision Solar, now the country’s
leading developer of solar carports. The company’s signature
product is “solar groves,” 1,000-square-foot canopies that shade
parking lots while generating clean power from an array of
photovoltaic panels. One early adopter was the Kyocera
Corporation of Japan, which tasked Envision Solar with the
construction of its first large-scale “solar grove” in 2006 at
its United States headquarters in San Diego, where