The French Senate recently approved a new law that will promote the deployment of renewable energy in France and require that outdoor parking lots be required by law to install PV Panels.
French Senator (Jean-Pierre Corbisez) said that under the law, large outdoor parking lots with more than 80 parking spaces will be covered by solar PV Panels, which could add 6.7GW to 11GW of installed solar capacity in the next few years. This would almost double France’s installed solar capacity, which stood at 13.2GW as of 2021.
Starting July 1, 2023, parking lots with at least 80 and up to 400 parking spaces will have five years to comply with the new measures, while larger parking lots will need three years to implement the changes.
Some exceptions may apply if technical, safety, architectural, historical or environmental constraints prevent the installation of solar PV panel roofs.
In addition, other measures taken by the law include increasing the requirement for non-residential rooftops to be covered by 50% solar PV Panels, up from the previous requirement of 30%.
Several proposals around agricultural PV have also been adopted, including the removal of asbestos from agricultural roofs to support solar PV, which will be implemented as a trial run over the next three years.
The French Renewable Energy Trade Association (SER) has welcomed several provisions proposed by the Senate that would accelerate the deployment of renewable energy in France.
