France Starts With Solar Panels or Plants on the Rooftops

The rooftop scenery in France is set to change over the new few years as new buildings built in commercial zones in France will be required by law to either be covered in plants or solar panels.

While originally intended to cover all new buildings, the law was narrowed down to only included new commercial buildings. Intended to implement “green roofs” on all buildings, a term used to describe roofs which are covered in plants and grass, reducing the amount of energy needed to heat a building by insulating the roof (one of the main sources of heat loss in a building) thus keeping the building warm in winter and cool in summer. The new law, brought in on Thursday, allows for only part of the roof to be covered and offers the option to include solar panels, allowing them to generate electricity instead.

This is not the first case of a country enforcing green roofs through the law, Toronto in Canada adopted a law making them mandatory in industrial and residential buildings.

Have you ever seen a green roof? What do you think of them, is this the future of buildings?

Thank you Guardian for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Ezsolar.