In France, solar just got a huge boost from new legislation approved through the Senate this week that requires all parking lots with spaces for at least 80 vehicles – both existing and new – be covered by solar panels. — electrek
Starting on July 1, 2023, parking lots that have between 80 and 400 spaces will have five years to comply with the new measures. Those with more than 400 spaces will need to comply within three years, with at least half of the surface area of the parking lot needing to be covered in solar panels. Parking lots that accommodate trucks carrying heavy goods or parking areas in historic or protected areas are exempt from the measures.
This move is part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to multiply the amount of solar energy produced in France by 10. The initiative also aims to double the power from land-based wind farms. As reported by electrek, the government claims this plan could generate up to 11 gigawatts, which can power millions of homes.
3 Comments
Sooo smart.
I can understand new parking lots meeting that demand but not so sure how well that will play out with existing parking lots. There is going to need to have some serious financial incentive and subsidization of the cost to do such in the limited time frame of 5 or even 10 years. If you expect people to pay for that out of pocket, you are going to need to set the deadline closer to 25-50 years for existing. New parking lots, I can agree with, especially if you give a limited amount of time for such to go into effect like 2-5 years because some new projects under way may not been budgeted and design for such a significant increase in project costs. Such parking lots would cost 2-3 times as much per square foot if not more. I can see this is going to pose some serious backlash and complications.
I'm not saying that there isn't merit to solar panel roofs over large parking lots. It seems that it's a bit of a forced majeure in a coercive fashion.
I'm not intending my response as a "party pooper" because I do see and support renewable energy and use of solar energy. On the other hand, from a pragmatic perspective, I find that such a regulation mandate as it appears may find some difficulty in businesses and organizations complying with it. There will be some that can but wouldn't they be doing such anyway? The question is those they wouldn't have been doing such because they don't have the finances for doing such for existing property. If they wouldn't be doing such today because of financial reasons, why would they somehow magically be able to do so, now? Where's the money? How is it going to be financed? These are things we need to pay attention to when trying to force a requirement with significant financial implications to implement. I understan this is France but even so, I don't expect economic realities to be all that different from anywhere else including the U.S. These agendas are going to come at the cost of inflation that impacts the regular persons. The ultra-rich has played by different rules in every country throughout pretty much the entirety of the history of human civilizations.
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