French law on the acceleration of renewable energy production – Impacts on car parks




FR Law n ° 2023-175 of 10.3.23 / OJ of 11.3.23

Reminder: At the end of 2022, the Government initiated an accelerated procedure aimed at finalizing a draft law on the acceleration of renewable energy production.
The Joint Committee, meeting on 24 January 2023, reached an agreement.
The text was definitively adopted by the National Assembly on 31 January 2023 and the Senate on 7 February 2023.
The law of 10 March 2023, published in the Official Journal on 11 March 2023, is structured around five axes:

    • measures promoting the territorial appropriation of renewable energies and their proper landscape integration.
    • simplification and territorial planning measures aimed at accelerating and coordinating the implementation of renewable energy projects and industrial projects necessary for the energy transition.
    • measures to accelerate the development of solar, thermal, photovoltaic and agrivoltaic energy.
    • measures to accelerate the development of offshore renewable energy production facilities.
    • cross-cutting measures for financing renewable energies and value recovery and sharing.
    • This analysis details the measures of the law related to housing.





These new provisions came into force on March 12, 2023.

We limit ourselves in the rest of the text, to detail the measures related to parking areas.

Deployment of photovoltaic shades in car parks (law: art. 40)

The existing car parks of more than 1,500 m² will gradually have to be equipped, over at least half of their surface, with shades incorporating a renewable energy production process on the entire upper part providing shade.

This obligation will apply to:

• as of July 1, 2026 for:
- car parks with an area of more than 10,000 m²;
- parks subject to a concession or a public service delegation signed or renewed before that date;

• as of July 1, 2028 for: - car parks with an area of more than 1500 m² and less than 10,000 m²;
- parks subject to a concession or public service delegation signed or renewed after that date.

Any breach of this installation obligation may be noted by a sworn civil servant or public official (Energy Code: L.142-21) or by an officer or judicial police officer (CU: L.480-1) and sanctioned by the application of a penalty.
Thus, the French competent administrative authority may impose a financial penalty on the manager of the car park concerned, each year and until the park is brought into compliance, up to a ceiling of EUR 20 000 if the car park is less than 10 000 m² and EUR 40 000 if the car park is of an area greater than or equal to 10 000 m².