According to Engadget, French officials are giving parking lots operators five years from July 2023 to implement photovoltaic panels on parking lots that are 80-400 spots in size.

Parking lots that are larger than 400 spots are to implement this solution two years earlier, meaning they will have three years to install solar panels.

The law implies that at least half of the parking area should be covered with photovoltaics and French officials believe that this could help generate as much as 11GW of power, equivalent to 10 nuclear reactors.

The government says that if outdoor parking lots have "technical, safety, architectural, heritage and environmental constraints", they will be part of the exception.

Other parking spots that will not be required to comply are those for trucks and also those that have at least half of the area shadowed by trees.

In order to push renewables, France will also host solar panel farms in vacated spots, such as near highways, railways or agricultural lands that are not being used for farming.

French railway operator SNCF wants to install photovoltaics over an area larger than one million square meters in an effort to reduce energy purchases by 25%.

Belgium is another country that took advantage of open space parking lots, as it implemented 62.000 overhead panels over 70% of the parking lot at Belgium Zoo.

In ideal condition they can produce as much as 20 megawatts of power, which is way more than the zoo actually needs for operation.

Disneyland Paris will also implement a 17 megawatts solar park over its parking spots and the project is halfway done.

At the same time, in May, a 35 megawatt (MW) solar power carport with 90.000 solar panels was launched in Biddinghuizen, the Netherlands.

President Emmanuel Macron presented earlier this year a plan to advance renewable energy in France, including extending the country's solar capacity to 100GW and building 50 offshore projects that could add another 40GW of capacity.

Photo source: Solarfields