France legislates for solar car parks

[dan_b]

This is very interesting. France has just legislated that all car parks with capacity over 80 vehicles must have a solarPV canopy. And that includes existing car parks, which must be retrofitted if they don't.

https://electrek.co/2022/11/08/france-r ... ar-panels/

[Mr Gus]

Hoo-Rah (in Al pacino Stella Street voice)

That clearly won't be plain sailing, however.

[nowty]

A week or so ago I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Circa 8 years ago I was made redundant in a reorganisation after over 20 years service. I had meandered away from engineering towards investment appraisal of essential UK infrastructure projects but because I was a Chartered Engineer and not a Chartered Accountant I was requested to re-apply for a more engineering role or face a near 50% pay cut.

As part of an interview for a new role which I was simply not suited to, I was asked to do a presentation of "What do we need to invest in for the future ?", and I did some standard stuff along the lines of some of the company's strategic project roadmap, but towards the end of my pitch I threw in a curve ball about plastering the roof and car park with solar panels based on my own experience of practical savings.

I was classed as a nutjob and was soon after made redundant , but it sort of worked out for me anyway.

SWMBO still works at the same location for a facilities management sub contractor. A couple of weeks back SWMBO came back from work histericaly laughing to tell me of a big plan to fit masses of solar panels over the existing car park.

[Mart]

Fantastic decision.

Nowty, isn't it weird how some folk reacted to PV in the earlier years. Even if only for greenwashing, your idea held merit, and I bet they could have earned some decent FiTs money too.

Demand side PV is simply excellent, especially for companies/businesses where they can get a lower cost per kWp installed. Some people don't appreciate the massive advantages that demand side PV has. Yes it costs more than supply side PV farms in CAPEX, but the advantages of little to no OPEX, and generation valued at retail prices, not wholesale.

Those carparks should be able to make money on this law, and hopefully help some of the cars stay dry / cool depending on the weather.

[nowty]

Not only could the company have benefited from FITs back then, but the company also had a power factor problem which I reckon could have been partially corrected by tweaking the lead / lag inverter settings.

Its water under the bridge now.