Now the Vatican isn’t just in the business of saving souls – they’re saving electricity, too.
Some might recall that earlier this year the Vatican released a new list of deadly sins, ones with the modern age of globalization in mind. The list includes genetic manipulation, obscene wealth, infliction of poverty, drug trafficking, morally debatable experiments, violation of the fundamental rights of human nature and environmental pollution. While the Vatican stepped up campaigns to combat the rise of these lamentably common social afflictions, the Pope has undertaken a quest to rid the Vatican of one of these terrible offenses to contemporary Christian living.
Late last month the Vatican threw the switch on 2,400 photovoltaic panels perched on the top of the Paul VI Audience Hall. This black and white dappled roof-topper will generate in the neighborhood of 300 megawatt hours of energy and save over 200 tons of CO2 gas a year. This much energy is more than enough to heat and cool the Audience Hall, and the excess power will be shunted into the Vatican’s power grid.
The technology behind this modern (and hopefully expanding) miracle was donated to the Vatican by SMA Solar Technology and SolarWorld, two German companies at the bleeding edge of alternative energy production.
The move to decrease dependence on traditional energy sources will continue, according to Vatican sources. There are plans in the works to construct a 740 acre solar array on Vatican-owned land just north of Rome. This eco-friendly power plant, which would share space with the Vatican’s radio transmitters, would generate far more power than needed to run the Papal broadcasts. All of that surplus electricity would then be sent into the Italian national grid.
Praise for the Papal decision to become a net energy exporter has come from many corners, including Hinduism. Rajan Zed, Hindu/Indo-American statesman and president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said, “We may believe in different religions, yet we share the same home—our Earth. We must learn to happily progress or miserably perish together. For man can live individually but can only survive collectively.”
One can hope that, with such prominent places as the Vatican and the White House embracing solar technology, that the rest of the world will soon follow.
