The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy has adopted a report supporting a pan-European solar rooftop programme.
The solar programme forms part of a wider report on energy efficiency that has now been adopted by the Committee, although the European Parliament must now vote on the report. This vote is scheduled for during its September Plenary, which is set to take place the week of the 14 September.
The report calls for a “massive” solar rollout, as part of the EU’s Renovation Wave initiative, which is set to begin in September 2020. The Renovation Wave was first outlined in the European Green Deal, with industry trade body SolarPower Europe at the time suggesting that this could in fact include a rollout of rooftop solar PV, although this was not yet confirmed.
The pan-European solar rooftop programme has an aim of “meeting the rooftop potential of the EU”, which could generate around 680TWh per year, according to the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, and promote the deployment of both building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and distributed storage.
The report states that the Renovation Wave is an opportunity to achieve an energy-efficient and climate-neutral building stock by 2050, as well as an opportunity to provide “healthy, decent, affordable and energy efficient buildings where people can reach their full potential in line with the European Green Deal”.
Read more: Solar Power Portal
