Many EU countries are successfully converting large areas of car parks into so-called solar carports. This gives parking areas a whole new, double dimension. For the operator, it is the production of green energy from solar panels, reducing the carbon footprint and promoting an image of sustainability; for the parker, it is the protection of the vehicle from inclement weather and the ability to charge an electric vehicle on site. In France and some German federal states, it is already a legal obligation to equip car parks with solar panels, so demand for such projects is growing by leaps and bounds. In the Czech Republic, a similar boom in solar-powered covered parking areas can soon be expected.
Parking lots are an important part of the infrastructure in many places, but they occupy relatively large areas. Now they can become useful. The growing demand for renewables and energy saving has brought innovative solutions, turning car parks into a solar power plant and also contributing to the development of charging infrastructure for electromobility.
The dual use of parking spaces has benefits for both operators and customers. “There is the use of already occupied areas, so the panels are not planted on agricultural land. The renewable energy produced can be used to partially cover the consumption of adjacent buildings, used to recharge parked vehicles or sold to the grid. This will allow operators to reduce costs, lower their carbon footprint and actively encourage the expansion of renewable energy sources. In addition, the carports provide weather protection for the vehicles themselves,” explains Ales Damm, director of Greenbuddies Charging, a company that specialises in building solar carports for commercial purposes.
Car parks with solar carports are also ideal for direct charging of electric vehicles using photovoltaic energy. The demand for electric cars is growing worldwide. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), their share of the global car market will be just under 20 percent by the end of this year. And with more and more electric cars on the road, it is essential to ensure that charging infrastructure is built.
France and Germany have backed parking lot photovoltaics with legislation.
European Union countries are ahead of the Czech Republic in promoting solar electricity generation in parking lots. In France, a law came into force in mid-2023 that mandates the installation of solar panels on parking lots by their operators, provided that the capacity of the lot is 80 parking spaces or more. According to the French government, the photovoltaic parking lots thus created could generate approximately nine to eleven gigawatts of energy. That is, almost as much as ten nuclear reactors.
In neighbouring Germany, the obligation to install photovoltaics in open parking lots for commercial use has been enacted in the last two years in the states of Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony and Hesse. The parameters of the individual regulations vary depending on the Land concerned. The minimum number of parking spaces ranges from 35 to 100.
While in Germany this requirement only applies to new car parks, in France the law is extended to existing spaces. As a point of interest, if this regulation also applied to existing parking lots in Germany, nearly a quarter of the 215 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity the German government wants to install by 2030 could come from PV in parking lots, according to a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.
Solar parking lots bring benefits.
The largest ever car park covered with solar panels has been built in Biddinghuizen, the Netherlands, the site of several major music festivals each year. Over 90,000 solar panels with a total nominal capacity of 35 MWp have been installed. The panels cover a total of 15,000 parking spaces. One percent of the electricity generated is used to run the festivals and the rest is fed into the grid. When the festivals are not taking place, sheep graze on the 35-hectare site.
Austria’s largest carport was built by the Czech company Greenbuddies near the thermal baths in Lutzmannsburg. The 454-space car park is roofed with solar panels with an installed capacity of 1.5 MWp. The electricity generated is partly used directly at the spa and also for charging electric vehicles. The rest is sold to the distribution grid. The shelters also protect customers’ cars from bad weather, and the company itself has strengthened its image as an environmentally responsible and sustainable company by doing so. Greenbuddies is currently implementing a similar project in Austria, which will surpass the carport in Lutzmannsburg in terms of scale.
“Demand from the European Union countries is growing steadily, thanks to both legislative support in the individual countries and subsidy support. We recently completed a solar carport project in Belgium for Adiwatt’s industrial sites, where we built seven rows of carports with 2,248 panels with a total photovoltaic capacity of one megawattpeak. We also implemented a solar car park for the Lidl chain in the Netherlands. Also interesting is the cooperation with Form-Tec, a German manufacturer of mounting systems for photovoltaics, which has developed an innovative carport prototype that stands out for its ease of assembly,” says Aleš Damm.
The Czech Republic is already waking up.
In the Czech Republic, demand is starting to increase, especially from international retail chains that know the situation from European countries and know that it is universally beneficial for them to set up carports. It is Albert, Penny Market or Lidl, for example, that are starting to roof their car parks with solar panels in the Czech Republic. ČEZ is also looking into solar carports. One of the first Czech projects is located on the site of the nuclear power plant in Dukovany.
Even with the growth of electric cars in the Czech Republic, where the share of electric cars is expected to reach 6.9 per cent in 2030, i.e. 496,000 electric cars in total, according to an estimate by the consultancy Bloomberg New Energy Finance, it is necessary to focus on the development of charging infrastructure. There are currently just over 2 300 public charging stations in the country. And it is solar carports that may be the right solution. “Also thanks to electromobility, solar carports are and will be even more in demand. In the last year alone, we have seen an increase in demand of more than 100 percent,” concludes Aleš Damm.
