Solar panels on graves give Spanish town green energy

Santa Coloma De Gramenet (Barcelona): The crowded town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet in Spain has decided to make use of its cemetery not only to bury its dead, but also to generate eco-friendly power.

Row upon row of solar panels glint in the sun atop the multi-storey mausoleums where graves are stacked five high on top of one another.

When the idea was first floated people thought it was a joke and nobody applied to set up the scheme. With so little space in the cramped town, cemetery officials went ahead with their solar plan anyway.

"As we got no bidders, we decided to tackle the project on our own. Initially, we created an installation capable of generating 100 kilowatts, but we plan to expand to generate up to 400 kilowatts," the cemetery's director Esteve Serret said.

Santa Coloma, near Barcelona, has a population of 124,000 living in an area of just four square kilometres. The isolation of the sun-trap cemetery made it the only ideal location for such a project.

"The solar park has been an opportunity for the city to show an example of our fight against climate change and our commitment to use renewable energy. In this facility we are taking advantage of a wide open space which is isolated," said Begoña Bellette, Head Of Santa Coloma De Gramenet's Environmental Department.

She acknowledged that they had to be sensitive to families of those buried in the cemetery and stressed that the deceased are not disrespected.

A big public relations drive has ensured relatives support the green energy project.

Juana Hermoso, whose sister is buried in the cemetery said, "I think it is very good that they have installed the solar panels, they are good for the environment."

The 462 solar panels generate electricity equivalent to the yearly use of 60 homes, according to town officials.

"This plant saves a total emission of 50 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere per year," says Jordi Bistue, an engineer working for Barcelona's solar power consulting firm MpBata.

"To get a better idea, in order to absorb these 50 tons of CO2 it would be necessary to plant 6500 trees," he told Reuters.

The local government plans to erect more panels and triple the electricity output from the cemetery.