Vatican doing great cutting fossil fuel use, says U.S. energy expert [CNS]

[Palm_Tree]

Vatican doing great cutting fossil fuel use, says U.S. energy expert

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Vatican engineers are doing an impressive job trying to cut Vatican City’s dependency on fossil fuels by tapping into renewable energy resources and finding ways to cut energy consumption, said a visiting U.S. expert on energy efficiency.

Mark Hopkins, director of the United Nations Foundation’s energy policy program, said that prior to his June 12 visit to Vatican City he had no idea the tiny city-state was involved in so many “significant projects” aimed at reducing its own carbon footprint.

“It’s impressive they’re actually doing what some people only talk about and (they) are doing it in a significant way,” Hopkins told Catholic News Service June 12…

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He’s an energy expert that the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican invited to Rome to visit the Vatican’s department of technical services and talk with the engineers who have been leading the way in making the Vatican greener.

–He was given a tour of the large solar-power generator on top of the Paul VI audience hall, which produces energy estimated at 300,000 kilowatt-hours a year. “It’s quite impressive, very hot and very bright,” Hopkins said, adding that the engineers “are top-notch people doing great stuff.”

–he had no idea the tiny city-state was involved in so many “significant projects” aimed at reducing its own carbon footprint. “It’s impressive they’re actually doing what some people only talk about and (they) are doing it in a significant way.”

–One major project now under way at the Vatican is an attempt by technicians to map exactly where Vatican energy consumption is going, he said. “On average, in most buildings, about 35 percent of the energy is being wasted; either the building is not operating the right way or is not using advanced technologies” such as high-efficiency lighting, heating or cooling fixtures, he said. If it turns out one particular building consumes a disproportionate amount of energy, often it means something is wrong that can easily be fixed, resulting in huge savings, he said. Improved energy efficiency can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent, he said. “We have plenty of energy; the problem is we waste a lot of it,” especially by not making offices, factories and homes more energy-efficient, said Hopkins.

–He said “conceivably, Vatican City could become the first state to be powered by renewable” energy and become the first carbon-neutral nation in the world, partly as a result of its plans to build a large solar farm on property it owns on the outskirts of Rome. Such a status would put “the church in a great moral position” from which to encourage other nations and individuals to do more in promoting and using clean energy, he said. Global warming is a right-to-life issue, he said, since “the world will not be very hospitable to life if the climate gets out of hand.” He encouraged the Catholic Church to be more vocal about its efforts in environmental advocacy.

catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0902734.htm

 

[Palm_Tree]

From Bloomberg:

–On pasture land a day’s walk north of Rome, the inventor of radio Guglielmo Marconi set up a broadcasting service in 1931 for the Vatican. The world’s smallest state now intends to build the biggest solar plant in Europe for 500 million euros ($660 million) on those same 740 acres near the medieval village of Santa Maria di Galeria, project engineer Mauro Villarini said in an interview. The 100 megawatts unleashed by the station will supply about 40,000 households. That will far outstrip demand by Pope Benedict XVI and the 900 inhabitants of the 0.2 square-mile country nestled across Rome’s Tiber River. The plant will cover nine times the needs of Vatican Radio, whose transmission tower is strong enough to reach 35 countries including Asia. The solar station planned there should reduce about 91,000 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions a year that otherwise would have been produced by fossil-fuel generators, Villarini told Bloomberg.

–The 5,000-square-meter roof of the Paul VI auditorium – built in 1971 by Pier Luigi Nervi, the architect who designed Milan’s Pirelli Tower – was covered with 2,400 solar panels to produce 300 kilowatt hours of energy a year, enough for 100 households, cutting carbon-dioxide emissions by about 225 tons.

–The Vatican’s 300-seat cafeteria for staff will be decked out this summer with a solar-heating system to provide air conditioning and heating for the whole building. Kloben Solar Evolution, based in Verona, won the 300,000-euro contract to install thermal collectors, Villarini said.

–The Germany-born Benedict has been outspoken on environmental issues since becoming pope in 2005. During an address for World Peace Day in 2006, he said: “The destruction of the environment, its improper or selfish use, and the violent hoarding of the Earth’s resources cause grievances, conflicts and wars, precisely because they are the consequences of an inhumane concept of development.” The Vatican listed pollution as one of seven “social” sins in an effort last year to update the cardinal vices that date to the 6th century. “You offend God not only by stealing, taking the Lord’s name in vain or coveting your neighbor’s wife but also by wrecking the environment,” Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, said then.

bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aN2RJ9ob3OoY&refer=environment

 

[Palm_Tree]

From the Guardian:

–The Vatican has announced it is to spend €500m (£441m) building Europe’s largest solar power plant. Once the 100-megawatt plant opens in 2014, the Vatican will become an electricity exporter to Italy supplying enough power for the needs of 40,000 households. It is latest in a string of pronouncements by the Holy See that suggests it is serious about improving its environmental legacy.

–Last year, 2,700 solar panels donated by the German company SolarWorld were installed on the roof of the Paul VI auditorium.

–Perhaps the Vatican’s most noted environmental announcement, however, was made last year when Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, updated the cardinal vices – the seven social sins – by stating that Catholics “offend God not only by stealing, taking the Lord’s name in vain or coveting your neighbor’s wife, but also by wrecking the environment”.

guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/apr/21/solarpower-pope-benedict-xvi

 

[Palm_Tree]

From the BBC:

–Pope Benedict XVI has become the first pontiff to harness solar power to provide energy for the Vatican. Roof tiles on the Paul VI auditorium - used in poor weather for the Pope’s weekly audience with pilgrims - are being replaced by 2,700 solar panels. The photovoltaic cells will convert sunlight into electricity, generating enough power to light, heat or cool the 6,000 seat hall, engineers say. The Paul VI auditorium was designed by architect Pier Luigi Nervi and built in 1969, but the cement panels on its roof were deteriorating and it was decided last year to replace them with solar panels. Conserving global resources has been a priority for the German-born Pope. Since he was elected in 2005, Benedict XVI has criticised “the unbalanced use of energy” in the world.

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[Palm_Tree]

–On pasture land a day’s walk north of Rome, the inventor of radio Guglielmo Marconi set up a broadcasting service in 1931 for the Vatican. The world’s smallest state now intends to build the biggest solar plant in Europe for 500 million euros ($660 million) on those same 740 acres near the medieval village of Santa Maria di Galeria, project engineer Mauro Villarini said in an interview. The 100 megawatts unleashed by the station will supply about 40,000 households. That will far outstrip demand by Pope Benedict XVI and the 900 inhabitants of the 0.2 square-mile country nestled across Rome’s Tiber River. The plant will cover nine times the needs of Vatican Radio, whose transmission tower is strong enough to reach 35 countries including Asia. The solar station planned there should reduce about 91,000 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions a year that otherwise would have been produced by fossil-fuel generators, Villarini told Bloomberg.

The Vatican’s solar plant will could look something like this:




Mojave Desert, USA

http://greatgreengadgets.com/gadgets/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/csp-array.jpg
Mojave Desert, USA

http://www.energysustained.com/index_files/JuwiSolar2.jpg
Leipzig, Germany

http://www.ecofriend.org/images/solar_plant_in_portugal.jpg


under construction in Spain, the Castile-La Mancha region of the Spanish province of Cuenca

 

[greglani]

I can see some future benefits of a solar power system for the Vatican and its radio. If the main grid goes down, the Vatican may still be able to broadcast.

I do however have concerns about the Church measuring its “carbon footprint” as I consider it nonsense, much akin to the media hype in the early 1970’s of the Over Population Bomb ---- and now the birthrates of European countries can not even replace their native populations.

My last parish asked parishioners to measure their personal “carbon footprints”, when they really should be asking them to take a quiz to determine if their soul was in a State of Grace.

Reducing the dependence on fossil fuels is laudable, but many of these “green technologies” consume huge amounts of fossil fuel to produce and these solar technologies may have a much shorter useable life than is economically necessary to justify their use.

Today’s pop culture wants us all to measure our Carbon Footprint, believing it is causing global warming. In the 1970’s the concern was a coming Ice Age. Tomorrow, the carbon footprint concerns will be replaced by a new dire threat.

/s/ Greg Watkins

 

[manualman]

I agree that the Vatican really ought to be rather careful about talking about “carbon footprints,” but I’m not so sure THEY are the ones emphasizing that aspect. It’s ahrd to control the spin the media puts on things.

It seems entirely possible to me that their major conecrn and effort is to support cutting edge energy efficiency initiatives. Those are beneficial to humanity regardless of whether there is ‘global warming due to carbon emissions.’ The Vatican very much wants to shed the unfair popular image it has of being ‘anti-science.’ We’ve been painted with the paintbrush of protestant fundamentalists on that score and it is undeserved.

As for the bragging rights of being the first state entirely powered by ‘renewable energy,’ that’s really a red herring. No other nation state on earth has ZERO industry, zero agricultural production and such a tiny total population. Best to avoid deceptive bragging rights, IMO.