Vatican auditorium’s roof to be covered with PV cells

Some of the Holy See buildings will start using solar energy, reflecting Pope Benedict XVI’s worry about squandering the Earth’s resources, said a Vatican engineer who came up with the idea.

The roof of the Paul VI auditorium will be redone next year, with its cement panels replaced with photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity, engineer Pier Carlo Cuscianna said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
The 6,300-seat auditorium is used for the pontiff’s general audiences on Wednesdays in winter and in bad weather during the rest of the year. Concerts in honor of pontiffs are also occasionally staged in the hall, which has a sweeping stage.

The cells will produce enough electricity to illuminate, heat or cool the hall, Cuscianna said.

“Since the auditorium isn’t used every day, the (excess) energy will feed into the network providing (the Vatican) with power, so other Vatican offices can use the energy,” he said.

Cuscianna said Benedict is aware of the plan, the feasibility study for which was recently published in the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

International Herald Tribune