The law aims, in particular, to improve air quality in major cities, help renovate buildings, promote electric mobility, fight against land consolidation and even integrate more vegetarian menus in restaurants. "This is a comprehensive and ambitious text that permanently enshrines environmentalism in our development model," said Barbara Pompilli, minister of the environmental transition, in a press release. "We are now focused on the next step: the introduction of secondary legislation to concretely translate the text's measures into everyday French people."
Regarding solar photovoltaic energy, several measures could have a direct impact on the development of projects in the coming years. These include reducing the costs of grid connection of photovoltaic systems up to 500 kW and solarization of new buildings.
According to the text, from January 1, 2023, new commercial and industrial buildings, as well as warehouses and hangars with an area of more than 500 m2 and office buildings with an area of more than 1,000 m2, will have to solarize 30% of their surface. From January 1, 2024, new car parking areas with an area of more than 500 m2 will have to solarize 50% of their surface and 100% if there are carports in the area.
The law also includes streamlining the permitting process for installing solar power plants on non-cultivable land as well as in coastal areas and the ability to call for tenders for large-scale storage and hydrogen projects in France.
