Architectural Heritage and Photovoltaic Solar Panels: Regulatory Framework and Action Criteria in Navarra (Spain)

[EN] Nowadays, there is an evident growing social demand for installing self-consumption photovoltaic solar panels on existing buildings. This reality often conflicts with the duty to protect and preserve our built cultural heritage, whose conservation is of public and social interest. And it is not only referring to monumental heritage, which holds the legal protection granted by its designation as a Cultural Heritage Asset, where any intervention is regulated and controlled, but also and especially to domestic architectural heritage: an entire collection of minor traditional architecture spread across our cities and towns, without a clear stylistic classification but of great environmental value due to its presence in the landscape, of which it is an essential and inseparable part. The installation of solar panels on the roofs of all these buildings can lead to a substantial modification of some landscapes and urban spaces that are part of the collective visual memory. It should be noted that this article constitutes, more than a proper scientific text in accordance with the objective of this conference, a reasoned exposition and evaluation of a real situation of conflict between the implementation of certain renewable energy installations in built cultural heritage—primarily photovoltaic solar installations—and the application of their legal protection regime and the duty of conservation.