The mandating of solar panels on car parks is under consideration as a part of the Government’s Plan for Change with DESNZ launching a call for evidence.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Right now, the sun is shining on hundreds of thousands of car parking spaces across the country which could be used to power our homes and businesses. We want to work with businesses and car park operators to turn our car parks into solar carports to save families and businesses money with clean, homegrown British energy through our Plan for Change.”

Solar carports are already mandatory in some European countries, including France and Slovenia.

Initial estimates suggest that an 80-space car park could save around £28,000 per year in electricity bills by installing solar carports and using all electricity generated. The call for evidence is seeking additional evidence on the potential benefits of the policy.

The Bentley Motors manufacturing facility in Cheshire is the largest solar carport in the UK, with 10,000 solar panels and a capacity of 2.7MW. Along with other installed solar arrays and 6.6 MW of battery storage, the car park enables all of Bentley’s manufacturing operations to be powered by solar energy.

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