Solar canopies in parking lots: major retailers call for "realistic regulations"

Large car park managers theoretically had until July 1st to equip them with photovoltaic canopies, under the 2023 renewable energy law, but large retailers, the first to be affected, are denouncing "unattainable objectives" and demanding "realistic regulations".

The APER law requires existing outdoor car parks larger than 1.500 square meters to install shade structures covered with solar panels on half of their surface area, to provide shelter from the sun and produce energy.

According to a decree published at the end of 2024, managers had until July 1, 2026 for the largest car parks (more than 10.000 square meters), and until July 2028 for the smaller ones (more than 1.500 square meters).

However, "many companies are not in compliance," according to the energy services company Idex, which is observing "a surge in requests to quickly launch projects and catch up."

When contacted by AFP, Idex's solar energy director, Edouard Roblot, mentioned that only "10% to 15% of parking lots larger than 10.000 m2 are already equipped" or in the process of being equipped.

Large retailers, primarily affected with their 21.000 stores and shopping centers, and their 70 million square meters of parking lots, had requested as early as April 2024 a postponement of the deadline "of at least two years".

Then, in January 2025, its lobby, the FCD, allied with about ten other organizations, challenged the decree before the Council of State, citing "unrealistic" deadlines.

This "legal action" is still ongoing, she told AFP. "Business professionals are fully committed to the ecological transition (...) but the planned implementation methods (...) make the objectives unattainable," she lamented.

"The regulatory context is still not finalized," Franck Charton, general delegate of Perifem, a technical federation of distributors dedicated to energy and environmental issues, told AFP.

He welcomes the "progress achieved" by the end of 2025 through the Huwart law, which allows for the partial substitution of tree planting for shade structures. Retailers will thus be able to adjust the "quantity of photovoltaic panels" to their needs and retain greater "autonomy" in deciding the future use of these areas, and potentially selling some of them for another purpose, he argues.

On the ground, however, some have already started to equip themselves, he notes, without giving figures.

Carrefour, France's second-largest retailer, claims in the country "a little less than 100 stores whose [solar energy] installations are in operation or in the final stages of construction", more than "160 stores, hypermarkets and supermarkets, which have obtained a building permit (...) for an annual production of more than 200 gigawatt-hours" and 80 projects launched in recent months, its executive director of strategy, energy and non-food activities in France, Alice Rault, told AFP.

The law provides for penalties of up to 40.000 euros per year, but parking managers will escape this if they show that "they have started thinking" about bringing themselves into compliance, according to Mr. Roblot.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.