I have been to Italy this year (at the end of August), and I have also been on the top of St. Pietro cathedral. I took a lot of pictures, but I didn’t see anything resembling a solar panel installation. It seems that the Pope, liked by some and disliked by others, has managed to receive a donation from the German company Thermovolt (the Pope is German – Ratzinger) consisting of about 2700 solar panels, to install on the highest rooftop of Vatican. The energy is being used for the air conditioning of the church.
The workers say that the newly installed solar panels will save about 200 tons of CO2 in just 2 weeks (the equivalent of 70 tons of oil). It’s just nice. In fact, the Vatican is the only place I don’t think these expensive things will get stolen. The project is estimated to about $1.5 million.
