Vatican unveils photovoltaic roof as part of Pope's pledge to move to green energy

A new solar panel roof has been inaugurated at the Vatican to provide renewable energy to the museum.

It’s part of Pope Francis' plans to ensure the city state in Rome runs entirely on green energy.

Italian energy supplier ACEA installed the photovoltaic roof in just six months in the Courtyard of the Corazze entrance.

"The most difficult thing is to integrate and find spaces to build photovoltaic infrastructure in places that are already heavily built up," said ACEA president, Barbara Marinali.

"This is an extraordinary example of how you can think, imagine and build a system that integrates with an infrastructure that already exists."

Pope Francis outlined his green vision for the Vatican in his 'Brother Sun' letter in June.

In it he said solar panels would be installed on a Vatican-owned property outside Rome and the power generated from that could supply all of Vatican City's energy needs.

"It is necessary to transition to a sustainable development model that reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, aiming for climate neutrality," the pontiff wrote.

In his letter, the pontiff went on to say: "Humanity possesses the technological means to tackle this environmental transformation and its pernicious ethical, social, economic, and political consequences, with solar energy playing a fundamental role among these solutions."

Pope Francis stated his position on the climate crisis back in 2015, when he said he would "renew the dialogue" on how we are "building the future of the planet."

"There is a strong scientific consensus indicating a troubling warming of the climate system. In recent decades, this warming has been accompanied by a steady rise in sea levels and an increase in extreme weather events," the Pope wrote in a letter named Laudato Si’ in May 2015.

In July 2022, things were formalised when the Vatican joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a global agreement among nations to address "dangerous human interference with the climate system."

Vatican City was set to join Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to become one of just eight countries in the world to generate 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.

"There are commitments that the Vatican City State has undertaken in the international arena. And we are not only fulfilling them, but we are also setting an example for other international realities. We are also reporting on this at COP 29 at the international level. We have indicated the 2030 targets, which we are complying with," said Salvatore Farina from the Vatican City State Administration.