New year and regulatory changes to be aware of, to ensure your regulatory compliance.
Sobre Energie will help you take stock.
APER law deadlines July 2026
Context reminder
The 2023 law on the acceleration of renewable energies (APER law) aims to strengthen renewable energy production to meet new and increasing uses:
- Decarbonizing heating through heat pumps
- Decarbonizing mobility through electric vehicles
- Decarbonizing industry
To accelerate this electrification of uses, commercial buildings play a strategic role: Article 40 of this APER law provides for the obligation to install a renewable energy (or green roof) system:
- New buildings (construction, extension or major renovation) with a footprint of over 500m², 30% of the roof area affected since January 1, 2025
- Existing buildings (administration, offices, hospitals, education, sports) with a floor area of over 500m2, starting in January 2028
The obligation also applies to car parks, with 50% of the surface area being covered by photovoltaic canopies (or vegetation):
- Existing parking areas of over 500m² undergoing major renovation or new parking facilities, since January 1, 2025
- Savings by self-consuming electricity produced below market prices
- Compliance with the Tertiary Decree, as this self-consumption is deducted from your declarations on the Ademe's OPERAT platform
- Increase the value of your assets by obtaining high-performing Eco Energy Tertiary ratings
The obligation will be extended in July 2026.
As with the Tertiary Decree, the APER law provides for thresholds to be raised at regular intervals:
- On roofs, there is an obligation to install photovoltaic panels or vegetation on 40% of the surface area concerned of new buildings (or major renovations), from July 1, 2026, then 50% from July 1, 2027.
- In parking lot canopies, there is an obligation to install photovoltaic panels (or add vegetation) on 50% of the surface area for existing and new parking lots 10,000m², starting from July 1, 2026.
Please note that the recent law simplifying urban planning law (15/10/2025) has relaxed this criterion for car park canopies: 50% of the surface area can be covered by "mixed methods contributing, in total, to the shading of at least half of their surface area":
- Shade structures covering at least 35% of half the area of these parks
- Vegetated structures contributing to the shading of the remaining surface to be covered.
DDADUE Law, companies and local authorities concerned
The new criteria for business registration
The DDADUE energy audit (resulting from the transposition of European directive 2012/27/EU) is an obligation for large companies (excluding SMEs) to carry out an energy audit of their activities every 4 years.
The new European directive on energy efficiency (No. 2023/1791) has been transposed into French law through the DDADUE law of April 30, 2025* . The criteria for compliance now relate to the company's annual final energy consumption level and not its size (number of employees or turnover):
- Implementation of an Energy Management System (EMS) by 11/10/2027 , if average annual final energy consumption is greater than or equal to 23.6 GWh
- Mandatory energy audit to be carried out before 11/10/2026 and then every 4 years, if the average annual final energy consumption is greater than or equal to 2.75 GWh (calculation based on the average of the last 3 years before the year of the audit)
- Implementing an ISO 50001 type energy management system exempts companies from carrying out the mandatory energy audit.
This means that many companies previously unaffected (particularly in the tertiary, logistics or services sectors) may now be subject to the tax as soon as their consumption reaches these thresholds.
The approach of local authorities
From now on, since October 1, 2025 , the State, state operators and local authorities with more than 50,000 inhabitants will have to reduce their final energy consumption each year by at least 1.9% compared to their reference consumption of 2021.
This requirement will be gradually extended to smaller communities:
- from December 31, 2026 for those with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants
- As of December 31, 2029 for communities of less than 5,000 inhabitants
In parallel, these entities will have to renovate at least 3% of the cumulative surface area of their buildings annually in order to reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
These new structural obligations require local authorities to rely on an energy management platform to monitor their consumption. This obligation marks a major acceleration of energy renovation policies in the public sector, which is now subject to stricter and more regular oversight.
Anticipate your trajectory to 2030
Beyond these regulatory deadlines of the next twelve months, 2026 is also an opportunity to anticipate your medium-term energy trajectory: how to achieve my Tertiary Decree 2030 objectives? How to prioritize these investments on my real estate portfolio?
The BACS Decree in service of the Tertiary Decree
Reducing your energy consumption in the short term is possible by equipping your commercial buildings with a Building Management System (BMS). This can lead to average savings of 30% and ensures your regulatory compliance with the BACS Decree and, consequently, the Tertiary Decree.
Such a BMS allows for the optimization of the control of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting equipment.
The requirement to install a building management system (BMS) is changing:
- as of January 1, 2025 , buildings whose nominal useful power of equipment is greater than 290 kW and whose building permit is filed from July 21, 2021.
- as of January 1, 2027 (deadline currently under consultation), buildings whose nominal useful power of equipment is greater than 70 kW and whose building permit is filed from April 8, 2024.
Tertiary Decree: preparing your technical file for modulation
To maximize the value of your real estate portfolio, it is essential to achieve your energy consumption reduction targets by 2030. However, for some buildings, it may be necessary to consider adjusting your energy reduction targets:
- due to technical constraints
- due to architectural constraints
- due to heritage constraints
This modulation is permitted, but it remains subject to demanding technical and regulatory criteria.
To constitute a solid and admissible modulation file before the 2027 deadline, support by a qualified design office as sober energy is essential. We help you technically justify the constraints of your wealth and to secure your compliance strategy.