Italy has given its permission for the Vatican to to turn a 430-hectare field north of Rome (Santa Maria Galeria, which was a matter of dispute or shared territory between Italy and Rome) into a great big solar farm that should ideally provide the papal state with enough electricity for it to become a carbon-neutral state.
The development will preserve the agricultural use of the land while minimizing environmental impact.
The Vatican will not pay Italian taxes on solar panel imports, nor receive financial incentives that Italy might.
Italy, in turn, will receive EU brownie points for clean energy on its territory.
Surplus electricity will be gifted to the local community.
It is reported to cost under 100 million euros to develop the solar farm.
But sombre controversy haunts the Santa Maria Galeria, thanks to the Vatican towers denying their electromagnetic waves might have caused childhood leukemia in locals (yet cutting back transmission despite denials, a result of lawsuits).
Francis was a notoriously green pope, and Leo now says that it is a vision of Francis’ that he intends to continue, as he generally supports this ecological legacy.
