Solar World: Vatican installs solar panels

By LEAH KRAUSS The Vatican will install solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of its Paul VI audience hall in a comprehensive energy project that will pay for itself in a few years, according to the brains behind the idea.

The solar array will power the building's heating, cooling and lighting systems year-round, Pier Carlo Cuscianna, head of the Vatican's department of technical services, told the Catholic News Service.

"The Paul VI hall was chosen first for a number of reasons: Cooling and heating the large audience hall makes it one of the top energy guzzlers in the Vatican, and its roof was in need of repair," the news service quoted Cuscianna as saying. When completed, the project will include more than 1,000 panels, according to Cuscianna, and the excess electricity generated will be added to the Vatican City grid.

Cuscianna said another benefit of the solar array was increased independence from Italy's power grid. "Italian news headlines (are) warning of yet another sweltering summer and potential power brownouts and blackouts," according to the news service. The solar installation will not be the Vatican's first green move under Pope Benedict XVI. He voiced support for alternative energy during an address on the World Day of Peace this year, saying, "The increasingly serious problem of energy supplies (is leading to) an unprecedented race for the Earth's resources." Earlier in May Benedict took a radical stance in favor of a worldwide automobile boycott at the Vatican Conference on Climate Change.

"Soon I will be traveling to New York City to address the United Nations," the pope said at that conference, according to The Intelligence Daily news service. "The United States of America is using an obscene 22 million barrels of oil per day, 12 million barrels of which are imported from Saudi Arabia. "Four years ago, the United States invaded Iraq to capture the Middle East's oil. No other country uses even 2 million barrels of oil per day. It is the burning of these fossil fuels which is causing the global warming catastrophe now upon us," he said. "The Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Sikh and all of the other religious leaders at the Vatican Conference on Climate Change unanimously backed the call for the immediate and permanent world wide car boycott," The Intelligence Daily reported. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, contacted for a request for comment on the pope's commitment to the environment and solar energy, did not immediately respond.

Cuscianna, the Vatican's department of technical services chief, declined to reveal how much the solar project would cost.

It is clear, however, that the Vatican is dedicated to investing in clean energy projects. "In 1999, as part of preparations for the jubilee year, the entire lighting system of St. Peter's Basilica was upgraded to be low-impact. Strategically placed energy-saving light bulbs were installed inside and out, cutting the basilica's energy consumption by an estimated 40 percent," Catholic News Service noted. In addition to being a way to preserve the environment against the harms of burning fossil fuels, solar is becoming a way to save money on electric bills, and even to make money on the stock market. Although solar currently comprises a tiny percentage of the world's energy production, solar industry associations forecast that in 20 years, billions of people around the world -- especially those who live far from the power grid and currently have no access to electricity -- will rely on it.

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Copyright 2007 by UPI

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