Solar Meters: A New Way to Pay for Parking

Many cities, like Sacramento, California, are experimenting with a new method of city parking that may make the old gray parking meters completely obsolete. Instead of seeing this thin old gray sentinels, now in a lot of cities you may see solar meters, which looking more like thin ATM machines then the old fashioned parking meters that they are replacing.

Instead, there are actual solar powered solar meters, often nicknamed "little green machines" since many of them are painted a dark forest green to catch the eye, with one or two to a block. What will make many city goers extremely happy is that you don't need to scrounge for change anymore. These machines will accept change, dollars, ATM cards, or credit cards.

Even better, you don't have to leave unused minutes on the curb anymore. Solar meters allow commuters to use part of their time at one spot, and then use the rest at a different spot somewhere else in the city, making for some decent savings for drivers who are constantly on the move within the city.

There are some down sides, the most obvious being when it rains and you have to run down the block to get your parking paid for, and then running back there to get your remaining minutes before taking off once again. But in the cities that have been brave enough to experiment with solar meters over the conventional coin fed parking meters, the general consensus seems to be that people like the change.

There are far less parking tickets, but in the long run the city will make more money because of the maintenance difference. A battery for a normal parking meter runs out every six months and needs to be replaced - at about $500 a pop. One solar meter costs about $7,500, but the battery recharges naturally, and since there are only 1-2 of those a block as opposed to dozens of parking meters, the city ends up with more money even as people pay less for parking and receive less tickets.

Solar meters are still slow in catching on, but as more cities experiment and switch over, this can be a prime example of how solar energy can help practically make life better, and convince more and more people that solar power is here to stay.