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Panel awnings seem like they would be a win-win for parking lots. The cars get shade, the local area gets energy, and the lot owners get a side source of income.

Is it not cost effective to raise the panels on stilts? Are there liability concerns? Is it too expensive to wire parking lots with beefy electric service?

In France they passed a law obliging business with parking lot to build solar panels on them. I'm happy to see more and more parking lot equipped with solar panels, I can finally have my car in the shade while I shop, and soon it will be the same at my work.

I do not know the reason why it had not been done before, I guess that there was not a lot of solutions available for this use case.

And that's not even mentioning the long-distance high-voltage transmission lines required for putting solar panel farms (and wind farms!) way out in the desert or open fields where they won't be an eyesore to anyone living close by.

While I agree aesthetically, the cost is about twice as much to install them on buildings.