EVEN THE POPE IS GOING GREEN!
The Pope following Pope
Are you ready for green robes made of organic fibers and the “popemobile” equipped with hybrid technology and huge recycled glass windows for your Pope-viewing pleasure? Well that may not be far fetched given that this weekend, Pope Benedict XVI installed photovoltaic solar panels to his home outside of Regensburg, Germany.
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope will have a little competition now as to who’s the greenest “Pope” after the installation, which will generate as much as 6MV of electricity(5,800 kilowatt hours per year). With local plumbers donating almost 54 square meters of panels, and workers from a local trade school helping with the installation, the Pope’s solar panels can generate as much as $3500 in surplus electricity to the German grid. Profits earned would be donated to job and skill training to disadvantaged youth.
“Technologically advanced societies can and must lower their energy consumption, either through an evolution of manufacturing methods or through greater ecological sensitivity among their citizens. It should be added that at present it is possible to achieve improved energy efficiency while at the same time encouraging research into alternative forms of energy,” said Pope Benedict in a prepared statement.
You’re next workplace!
The Pope also was a key voice in the Vatican announcing that it will be installing a $600 million solar plant. A 6,000 seat hall will receive heating, cooling, and natural light through 2,700 solar panels which will also save up to 200 tons of carbon dioxide. Andre Koekenhoff, one of the workers on the Vatican solar project, said that the initiative was an attempt to make the Vatican “a little bit greener”.
“With this plant, if it is working, in about two weeks we avoid 200 tons of carbon dioxide, and this is the equivalent of 70 tons of oil,” he told the Associated Press.
The energy saved when the hall is not being used, will be fed into the Vatican’s power network. The panels used were donated as a gift by a Bonn-based company which reportedly are worth $1.5 million.
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:31 pm
This is such a great article, and I think it’s wonderful that the Pope is going green. He is such a huge influence to so many people, and I hope that with his showing more interest, others will fall in his footsteps.
May 9th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Good thing that even our pope is interested in doing a green act. I just hope that he or his designers will be interested in window tint products that can can stop up to 80% of all solar energy coming through windows which is very helpful in our home. (www.tintbuyer.com)