Pope outed as a sun worshipper

The solar energy industry was this week blessed with a rather unlikely endorsement, when the Vatican flicked the switch on a 5,000 square metre solar array installed on the rooftop of the city state's "Nervi Hall".

The 2,400 photovoltaic panels have been donated by German companies SolarWorld and SMA Solar Technology and are expected to boast an output of around 220kw, providing lighting and air conditioning to the hall and surrounding buildings.

The array, which is worth an estimated €1.2m (£997,000), will also cut the Vatican's carbon emissions by 225 tonnes a year and save it about 80 tonnes of oil.

According to Reuters reports, the rooftop array could prove the forerunner for a more ambitious project that would see the Vatican export clean energy to the Italian grid.

The news agency quoted Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the governor of Vatican City, as saying that plans were being considered to build a 300 hectare solar farm on land to the Vatican-owned land to the north of Rome.

The land is used as a transmission centre for Vatican Radio, but it is hoped that a solar system at the site would generate more than six times the energy required by the radio technology, meaning that energy could be exported to the Italian grid.

Reuters also reported that the Vatican is considering further renewable energy technologies – albeit working within the confines of a commitment not to disrupt the city's famous skyline – as it seeks to meet a target that would see it generate 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.