All new buildings in the EU would be fitted with solar panels on their roofs under plans to turbocharge a drive for renewable energy to replace the continent’s need for Russian oil and gas.
The European Commission wants half the bloc’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2030, more than double the current figure. The total cost of achieving this would reach hundreds of billions of euros but be offset by an annual €84bn saving on imported fuel, according to a copy of the plan seen by the Financial Times and dubbed RepowerEU.
One proposal is to “introduce an obligation to have rooftop solar installations for all new buildings and all existing buildings of energy performance class D and above [the most energy-intensive]”.