Davidson College Solar Canopies

About this project

Davidson College turned its parking lots into a power plant. 800.04 kW of it sits overhead on steel canopies that run the length of the lots — no ground cleared for a field array, just the same asphalt doing two jobs at once.

Every canopy run parks cars in the shade and feeds the campus at the same time. The structures were engineered to clear normal traffic, keep the existing striping and drive aisles intact, and sit low enough against the tree line that the campus still reads as a campus from the air.

The array is built from Qcell 590 W modules, manufactured in Georgia — American-made panels, produced in the same corner of the Southeast as the campus they now power.

These aerials were flown in August 2026, looking across the lots toward the athletic fields and the academic buildings beyond.

• 800.04 kW of generation built over parking the campus already had
• Qcell 590 W modules, manufactured in Georgia, USA
• Elevated carport canopies — no new land cleared for the array
• Covered parking for the campus underneath every run
• Existing lot layout, striping and drive aisles preserved
• Multiple canopy runs across adjacent lots