Vatican to install solar panel roof

IN ANOTHER SIGN that the Church is "going green", the Vatican has announced that a giant rooftop garden of solar panels will be built next year on top of the Paul VI audience hall.
The panels are expected to create enough electricity to heat, cool and light the entire building throughout the year.
"Solar energy will provide all the energy [the building] needs," said the head of the project, Pier Carlo Cuscianna, head of the Vatican's technical services.
Mr Cuscianna told the Catholic News Service that he had in mind other sites throughout Vatican City where solar panels could be installed, but that it was too early to say where exactly.
Even though Vatican City State is not a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, a binding international environmental pact to cut greenhouse gases, its inaugural solar project marks a major move in trying to reduce its "carbon footprint".
Cuscianna said the environmentally friendly solar panels will be put in place in 2008 after environmental impact reports and other studies have been completed, In a May 23 article in the Vatican newspa per L'Osservatore Romano Mr Cuscianna wrote that safeguarding the environment was "one of the most important challenges of our century".
The Italian engineer said appeals by Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II to respect nature inspired him to help power the Vatican's energy needs with renewable resources.
He recalled how, in his 2007 World Day of Peace message, Pope Benedict warned his flock of "the increasingly serious problem of energy supplies" that was leading to "an unprecedented race" for the earth's resources. Mr Cuscianna also drew inspiration from Pope John Paul H's 1990 peace message, which was dedicated to the need to respect God's creation.
"We cannot continue to use the goods of the Earth as we have in the past," wrote the late Pope, calling for "a new ecological awareness" that leads to "concrete programmes and initiatives."
The Paul W hall was chosen for two reasons: the building's large size makes it one of the top energy guzzlers in the Vatican and its roof is already in need of repair.
Robin Aitken: Page 10