Solar Panels in Europe

Solar panels from about 2026¹ will have to be designed into every new build in Europe.

In May 08 2024 The New European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU/2024/1275) came into effect. This could lead to up to an additional 200GW of power by 2030 across the continent.

This is great news as grid capacities can be expanded with no additional land use and especially in summer houses can use their own power and contribute excess back into national grids.

The objective is to reduce by at least 60% GHG emissions in the building sector by 2030 in comparison to 2015.

There is a get out clause the requirement is not absolute so any building that is overshadowed, eg. in the the middle of the woods does not actually have to install them.

Some Key Facts

• approx 40% of energy used in the EU is by buildings
• 1/3 of EU’s GHG emissions come from buildings
• approx 80% of energy from homes comes form heating, cooling and hot water.

The EU has a nice summary page for the act going over some other key things about it. ♻️

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1. States now have 2 years to add this into national legislation ref. From 2027 in every new non-residential and public building and from 2030 in every new residential building they will have to be planned with solar panel installation in mind.↩︎

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