April 21, 2026
A Report May 2024 Through Allied market research predicted that the carport market, then worth around $813 million, would more than double to a total of $1.7 billion by 2032. A more recent report says the outlook is even brighter, with market research firm Research Intelo predicting the solar fast charging market could reach $8.5 billion by 2033.
Gary Eberhart says there’s plenty of reason for that excitement.
“There is a lot of work going on in this sector, especially when you look at the existing infrastructure and buildings,” said Eberhart, VP of energy solutions and RME for carport construction company Baja Construction Co. “Everything from car dealerships to golf courses, to schools, prisons and multi-family housing, carports provide a methodology for the construction of solar panels and battery storage.”
Once overlooked as a “middle child” of the solar industry, occupying a space somewhere between traditional roof options and ground-mounted systems, carports now have a marketplace all their own.
According to Eberhart, this market has seen enormous interest in recent years, partly due to a number of factors. But the bottom line is that parking lots are becoming more and more part of the energy infrastructure, thanks to simple supply and demand.
“What’s happening is that energy prices are getting so high that they’re reaching a tipping point,” he says. “We’re reaching that tipping point. Utility prices continue to rise. The need for energy across the country has continued to rise.”
Necessity over policy
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s (OBBBA) across-the-board cuts to renewable energy could have spelled doom for the solar industry as a whole. But a new national crisis may have evened the odds in solar energy’s favor again.
The closure of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, combined with already skyrocketing energy bills, thanks in large part to the data center boom, has led to the most serious energy crisis in at least six decades. Eberhart says a large-scale energy crisis is far from good for Americans, but it could have capitalized on the solar carport market.
“In many cases, (a parking lot) is the only available space around businesses and entities that require additional energy generation as a way to offset energy bill increases,” he said. “They don’t have any other options. It’s not like they can install a utility-scale solar project right next door. They have to use the available real estate they have.”
In addition to making the most of a space, carports offer the added benefit of shade and protection from the elements. Eberhart says extra benefits are more than just nice to have; it even has financial consequences.
“Big box stores experience a significant reduction in receipts when it rains,” he says. “By placing carports in the parking lots, you mitigate some of that reduction. It is not only a financial energy play, but it can also have a direct correlation with other parts of your business where you generate turnover and profit.”
The ability to make the most of existing space has been a huge boon to the carport market, Eberhart says. But that market is still somewhat unsteady on its feet, despite the surge in interest.
Feeding a growing but unstable market
Eberhart says solar carports can be a hugely useful tool for electric vehicle (EV) charging. There’s only one problem. Released on January 30, the Institute for Energy Research latest report on global electric vehicle sales offers an overwhelmingly positive view of the global EV market – with the notable exception of North America.
In the United States, electric vehicle sales increased just 1% last year, a stark difference compared to the 7.3% jump the market saw between 2023 and 2024. The IER attributed much of that stagnation to policy shifts between the Biden administration and the second Trump administration, with the latter focusing much more on traditional combustion engine vehicles. Trump also eliminated the EV tax credit in late Q3 of 2025, causing sales to drop by nearly 50% between the third and fourth quarters of last year.
“The U.S. EV market is expected to be weak in 2026 due to a lack of consumer incentives, supportive legislation and investments that promote combustion engine production,” the company’s research said. “US electric car sales are expected to decline 29% by 2026.”
Yet there are still an estimated 7 million electric vehicles in the US market, about 2.3% of all vehicles. According to one Report 2024 Through CleanTechnicaCalifornia alone accounts for about a third of that number, and the Golden State has the nation’s largest carport — a 12.37 MW project at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles — to prove it.
Eberhart says battery storage and electric vehicle charging play an equal role in the rise of the carport market.
“Here in California, a lot of cars are electric. In 10 years, most cars will probably be electric,” he says. “Building that infrastructure so people have a place to charge vehicles (is critical). Normally you wouldn’t see something like that in a multi-family home, but now we see that from an equity perspective they have to provide that to the people who live there. But it’s also a marketing play.”
EVs already play an important role in the growth of the solar carport market, Eberhart says, but the vehicles are destined to play an even bigger role in the future.
Future applications
The future of solar carports lies in quite a few places, but perhaps most importantly in two sectors, says Eberhart. Specifically, he says storage and battery infrastructure, along with fleet charging, are the sectors of greatest interest.
“The incentives for batteries are quite good,” he says. “You can get a 30% incentive for battery installation and those incentives will continue until I think 2032, so we still have some head start on the incentives. Batteries are getting better and better and batteries are huge right now.”
The contracts that Baja Construction signs in its carport division largely focus on a few key sectors, Eberhart says. But perhaps the area of greatest interest at the moment is electric car charging.
“We have just signed a contract to build an electric truck charging station (carport) for charging the semi-truck fleet,” he says. “There’s going to be a huge battery at that location. There’s going to be a fair amount of PV at that location. They’re still going to need the utilities… but we’re going to be able to provide a good portion of (their energy).”
Eberhart expects the carport market to become a key player in vehicle electrification in general, but at current adoption rates it may take some time for it to spread across the United States. Still, he expects a big jump in the market by the end of the decade.
“I definitely see a lot more EV infrastructure happening all over the United States,” he says. “It’s going to be a requirement from an end-user perspective. That’s just not going to slow down. The other thing that will drive continued innovation and additional carports and solar in parking lots is the continued increase in energy costs.”
Tags: Baja Construction Co., carports, commercial and industrial, electric vehicles, EV charging
