Why not use parking lots, roof tops and such nearby opportunities?
Public rail service is typically of greatest value in high density urban areas and regional commute corridors. In these areas roof tops, parking lots, corporate and public agency campuses are rapidly being converted to solar PV electrical generating space. Owners of such space see the opportunity to lower their power cost and carbon footprint. That would put the rail operators and urban space owners in competition for limited space driving up costs. Using parking lots, roof tops and such for powering a rail system would require large a number of applications, inspections, permits, negotiations, grid connections and metering units creating redundancies and make this option cost and time prohibitive.
