NREL Parking Garage

NREL Parking Garage in Golden, CO

Source:  http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2012/1953

The irony here is that the renewable energy laboratory would build something that uses so much energy.   A blogger comments:
Our transportation system is this country’s biggest energy hog. You might think that the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) would know that better than anyone. But look where the lab is situated, way out on the Denver ex-urbs. This mammoth 1,800-car parking garage was built to accommodate all the employees driving. And boy the NREL is sure proud of their ‘energy-efficient” parking garage. Without a hint of irony they write: It’s no secret that researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) do cool things — including finding new ways to capture energy from the sun and wind. But there’s nothing cooler than working on a parking garage, right? The garage generates so much traffic that an entirely new access road had to be constructed to connect it with the I70 highway.
https://systemicfailure.wordpress.com/2017/05/06/behold-the-1800-car-parking-garage-at-the-national-renewable-energy-lab/

I have noticed before a trend of empty parking garages built right next to open space.  I will probably have more to say about this.