The concept of solar parking lots aims at coupling the development of clean solar electricity and electric mobility. Solar panels provide shade and generate electricity to charge parked electric vehicles. In a vehicle-to-grid approach, the vehicles may also feed the grid and support it with ancillary services. In this paper, we explore the potential of this solution, starting with a concise overview discussing the technical, environmental and financial issues constraining the development of solar parking lots. A comprehensive review of the literature follows, and finally open issues and prospects for future work are identified. It is intended that this paper may serve as a standalone summary of the most important work on this topic to date.