The déclaration préalable for your solar panels, assembled from the project
Panels on a roof change the look of a building, which in France calls for a déclaration préalable at the town hall. pvSpline assembles the package from the project, for form CERFA 16702: the plans framed on the map, your photographs, the parcel, the heritage protections and the installation’s characteristics, with no simulation run needed.
Every piece of the package
| Piece | What pvSpline puts in it |
|---|---|
| Cover | The applicant, the location with the cadastral reference and the declared protections, and the installation: power in kWp, module count, area, model and colour, tilt and orientation. |
| DP1 | The site location plan, with a north arrow and a scale bar. |
| DP2 | The block plan of the land and the panel layout, with the numbered pins of your photographs. |
| DP3 | A cross-section drawn by pvSpline: a pitched roof, a flat roof with tilted frames or tables on the ground, with the slope, the fixing and the height above the covering. |
| DP4 | The façade and roof plan: the supporting roof and the module layout. |
| DP6 | The integration into the environment: a photomontage or an aerial view of the finished installation. |
| DP7, DP8 | Your photographs of the close surroundings and of the distant landscape, numbered and captioned. |
| DP11 | The notice of materials, when a declared protection calls for it. |
Plans framed on the map
The four plan sheets are pictures of your site. Frame on the map takes you to the Map with the sheet armed: frame it, capture it, and you are back at the permit, whose preview shows it. The project remembers each sheet’s camera, and warns you when the array has moved since a sheet was framed.
The parcel and the building, looked up
Locate the parcel asks IGN’s cadastre for every parcel the array stands on, and the national building register (RNB) for the building under it. It fills in the cadastral reference, with the parcel’s national identifier, its area and the building’s identifier, and the cover cites their sources under the Licence Ouverte. The lookup sends only points inside your array, or the site’s coordinates, with no name or address.
The heritage check
When the form opens, it checks the site against the heritage protections published on the Géoportail de l’Urbanisme: a historic monument and its surroundings (abords), a site patrimonial remarquable, a site classé or inscrit. It pre-ticks what it can name for certain and says what each protection means for the file: the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France and a month more in a site patrimonial remarquable or the abords, the préfet’s express agreement in a site classé, a four-month wait in a site inscrit, and the pieces then required.
A site with nothing published can still be protected: the list annexed to the municipality’s urban plan (PLU) remains the authority, and the form says so.
Photographs pinned where they were taken
DP7 and DP8 take up to eight photographs, re-encoded to 2400 px on the long side so that phone pictures stay light. Drag a photograph onto the DP2 plan and its numbered pin shows the town hall where it was taken.
A draft until every piece is in
The checklist beside the preview counts the pieces in, and while one is missing the PDF is stamped as a draft. Once every piece is in, the status reads Ready to file: attach the plans to the signed CERFA 16702 form and file it online or at the town hall.
A déclaration préalable in five steps
- Draw the array on the Map: its layout fills the plans and the cover.
- On Results, open the Town-hall permit tab and click Edit the full dossier….
- Frame DP1, DP2, DP4 and DP6 on the map, then add your DP7 and DP8 photographs and pin them on the DP2 plan.
- Click Locate the parcel, review the heritage check, and fill in the declared work and the installer.
- Click Generate the package, then file it with the signed CERFA 16702 form.
Questions
Do solar panels on a roof need a déclaration préalable?
As a rule, yes: they change the look of the building, which the Code de l’urbanisme puts under a déclaration préalable. The town hall’s planning department confirms what your parcel needs.
How long does the town hall take?
One month as a rule, and a month more in a site patrimonial remarquable or the surroundings of a historic monument, where the architecte des Bâtiments de France must agree. With a declared protection, the package’s next-steps page states the review period for your project.
Can I file the PDF as it is?
Once every piece is in, yes, with the signed CERFA 16702 form itself. The package is a preparation aid: check every field before you file, as the plans remain subject to a technical survey.
The fastest way to judge a simulation tool is to run it on a project you already know.