French solar company Urbasolar has announced it will deploy photovoltaic parking canopies on the parking lots of 36 of the superstores of French retailer Carrefour, which is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world.
The electricity produced by these installations will be completely self-consumed by each superstore, the company said in a statement, with Carrefour being the first French retailer opting for this solution. Every system installed at each store will have an annual generation capacity of 21,000 MWh, which corresponds to the annual consumption of 4,600 households, and to 210 tons of CO2 avoided each year, Urbasolar said without providing additional information.
French retail groups Auchan and Carrefour promised stronger commitment to solar and renewables during the presentation of the #PlaceAuSoleil initiative, held in late June, which is a plan of the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidary Transition to improve the current regulatory framework for solar energy and boost its development.
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At the time, Auchan said it aimed to install 60 hectares of solar panels at its facilities in France, while Carrefour committed to 20 hectares, while two more retailers, Magasins U and Les Mosquetaires, had committed to 50 hectares each.
In October, the European Commission approved France’s new incentive scheme for self-consumption from renewable energies. The scheme, which introduced net metering, do not apply to projects developed under a 100% self-consumption regime as those of Carrefour.
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Both Carrefour and Auchan have large international presences. I look forward to Carrefour flowing IKEA with solar parking canopies here in Spain.