Solar Panels on Graves?

You’ve heard the old adage “where there’s a will there’s way.” Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain, just upped the ante on the meaning of those words.

Bless their hearts. Here’s an old historical village just outside Barcelona, full of tradition and deeply religious, that had the desire to produce solar energy but nowhere to place the solar panels. In a mountainous town of 124,000 people, crammed into a mere 1.5 square miles, land is scarce, especially flat, sun-kissed land.

There seemed to be only one answer: to turn a sunny expanse of graves into a solar power plant.

Over this sacred burial place you’ll find 462 solar panels spread over 10,700 square feet of mausoleums holding five layers of coffins. It has the capacity to meet the energy needs of 60 families.

When the idea was first pitched to the cemetery’s owners, the municipal government, everyone agreed that this was a great idea. The cost to install the panels, $935,000, was footed by Conste and Endesa, a major power company. So, there was nothing to lose and free energy to gain.

But, it wasn’t so easy convincing the townspeople that installing solar panels on top of their ancestors was a good idea. They saw it as total disrespect for the deceased. However, a public awareness campaign shed such positive light on the project, the benefits to the townspeople and the environment, and the promise to respect and take the utmost care installing the solar panels atop the mausoleums, the townspeople eventually gave their thumbs-up on the project.

Their thoughts are “The best tribute we can pay to our ancestors is to generate clean energy for new generations.” Now, those are some seriously profound thoughts. We can all learn a lesson from these resourceful people.

Though the groundwork for the project has been in the making for three years, the panels only started working this month.

The cemetery holds the remains of about 57,000 people. The new solar panels take up less than 5% of the surface area. The cost to install these panels is $900,000 and, money well spent when considering they’ll keep 62 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each year.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Posted on December 31st in Solar News by Beth.