Can cemeteries help in renewable energy projects?

William Atkins
Monday, 24 November 2008 22:42

Science - Energy

In Spain, a "green" cemetary is now operating as a two-layered facility. The town’s mausoleums are on the ground level but, now, above them sit a series of solar panels generating electricity for many of its local citizens.


This scenario brings to mind all the graveyard possibilities that exist in the United States and around the world for locations of renewable energy projects, and away from inhabitable areas full of living people.

The original article this story was taken from is the ABC News story “Solar Panels on Graves Give Power to Spanish Town.”

ABC News said that the members of the city council of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, located just outside of Barcelona, Spain, has installed 462 solar panels above mausoleums within its Santa Coloma de Gramenet cemetery.

It is reported that the system cost US$900,000 to install.

More importantly, it will keep “about 62 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.” [TampaBay.com: “Solar cemetery! How the dead can power the living”]

The ABC News story says that the solar panels are generating enough electricity to provide power to sixty homes in the town.

The Associated Press author, Daniel Woolls, for the ABC News article states, “Coloma de Gramenet, a gritty, working-class town outside Barcelona, has placed a sea of solar panels atop mausoleums at its cemetery, transforming a place of perpetual rest into one buzzing with renewable energy.”

The Spanish story continues on page two.