CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis has commissioned the building of an agrivoltaic plant to contribute to the sustenance of energy in the Vatican City State.
According to Vatican News, Pope Francis has ordered the construction of the plant within the extraterritorial Vatican zone of Santa Maria di Galeria, emphasizing the need “to make a transition to a sustainable development model that reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, setting the goal of climate neutrality.”
Agrivoltaics is a method which places solar panels above crops, allowing both solar energy and food to be produced simultaneously on the same land.
The new plant aims to meet the energy requirements of Vatican Radio and contribute to “the complete energy sustenance of Vatican City State.”
The agrivoltaic plant will utilize the Holy See’s property at Santa Maria di Galeria. Situated on the outskirts of Rome, this 424-hectare area accommodates the transmission facilities for Vatican Radio, as per a 1951 agreement between the Holy See and the Italian State.
The Holy Father explained in his new apostolic letter, Fratello Sole (“Brother Sun”), “Mankind has the technological means to deal with this environmental transformation and its pernicious ethical, social, economic and political consequences; and among these, solar energy plays a key role.”
The responsibility for constructing the agrivoltaic plant has been assigned to Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, LC, the president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, SDB, the president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.
