by John Goetz
In what seems to be a script straight from a Monty Python classic, the good folks of Santa Coloma de Gramenet in Spain seem to have found a rather novel use for the dead: as a tool in the fight against global warming.
From the TimesOnline
November 28, 2008
by Graham Keeley in Barcelona
Spanish graveyard new front in the fight against global warming
Solar panels are installed in cemetery
A graveyard in Spain has become an unlikely front in the fight against global warming, with hundreds of black panels placed on top of mausoleums providing year-round power for homes.
The 462 panels produce 124,374 kilowatts of electricity, enough to supply 60 homes for a year in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, near Barcelona. The exorbitant price of land in the densely populated satellite city inspired a solar energy company to propose using one of the last remaining available plots of land – the cemetery.
Conste-Live Energy and the local council spent three years persuading relatives of those interred and near-by residents that the unusual proposal would benefit the living without demeaning the dead. “The best tribute we can pay to our ancestors is to generate clean energy for new generations,” Esteve Serret, a company director, said.
The panels cost €720,000 (£612,500) to install and each year will keep about 62 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, Mr Serret said.
“This is not much, but it will do something to help combat global warming,” said Bartomeu Muñoz, the Mayor of Santa Coloma. The glinting blue-grey panels are fixed on top of mausoleums, which in Spain hold five layers of coffins.
The panels, which face south to soak up maximum sunshine, were turned on last week after three years of planning. Santa Coloma is so densely populated that all 124,000 inhabitants live within a 4sq km area. Putting solar panels on coffins was a tough sell, said Antoni Fogué, a city councillor. “Let’s say we heard things like, ‘They’re crazy. Who do they think they are? What a lack of respect’,” he said.
City hall and cemetery officials waged a public awareness campaign to explain the worthiness of the project and the painstaking care with which it would be carried out.
Eventually they won over doubters, Mr Fogué said. The panels were erected at a low angle to be as unobtrusive as possible. “There has not been any problem because people who go to the cemetery see nothing has changed,” Mr Fogué said. “This installation is compatible with respect for the deceased and for the families of the deceased.”
The cemetery holds the remains of 57,000 people. The solar panels cover less than 5 per cent of the total area. Community leaders hope to erect more panels and triple output. Santa Coloma has four solar parks, but the cemetery is the biggest and the first to attach panels to graves.
When I read this I suddenly recalled the infamous “Bring out yer dead” scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.
Large Man with Dead Body: Here’s one.
The Dead Collector: That’ll be ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.
The Dead Collector: What?
Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. There’s your ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.
The Dead Collector: ‘Ere, he says he’s not dead.
Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not.
The Dead Collector: He isn’t.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m getting better.
Large Man with Dead Body: No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
The Dead Collector: Well, I can’t take him like that. It’s against regulations.
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Robert Bateman,
If that is indeed the reason for putting ANWR, etc., off limits, then let’s have a national debate about whether that is really in our best interest.
What would you rather have, a dollar in your pocket today, or wait in order to have two dollars put in your pocket twenty years from now?
Gimme the dollar today. The future will take care of itself.
Gary Janosz:
I’m not sure I’m too concerned about the “fight against global warming” but I am concerned about energy independence as a country and movement away from fossil fuels that are primarily concentrated in the unstable parts of the world. Solar panels to offset my own energy use seem like a good start. To that end I’ve become interested in an organization called One Block Off the Grid. 1BOG forms local cooperatives that share information and buying power to make residential solar installations affordable. http://1bog.org/
Affordable for whom? Passing 30% of the cost on to taxpayers, which will be possible beginning next year means we will all paying for that power. Of course energy independence is important, but there is no getting around the fact that solar is both expensive and unreliable. There are sources of oil offshore, and in Alaska that are currently untapped. We have plenty of coal, the cheapest way of producing power hands down, and we need to seriously re-think our decades-long moratorium on nuclear power.
David Ball (19:02:03) :
We can go nuclear and dispose of the byproducts by flinging them into the sun
Just a quick note:
It would be cheaper and easier to “fling” the byproducts into deep space (outside the solar system) rather than to fling them toward the sun. Tricky orbital mechanics…
Smokey: Forget the dollar, I would rather keep my house warm today. And have trucks deliver food to the grocery store. Without oil, that might be a problem. In twenty years we might have a better battery or more efficient solar cell. It would be nice to live to see it.
My 30 year-old TV finally quit. I can postpone buying another one. Can’t say the same when the pantry is empty.
When I freeze or starve, perhaps President Obama will put a solar panel on my grave…
Pamela Gray ,
Try running your washing machine, electric fire, tumbler drier, electric kettle, electric iron on solar panels. When you install them on the roof, who will clean them.
Will Small,
If you take a 200 year old window pane out of a 200 year old window frame you will find that the glass is thicker at the bottom.
“Try running your washing machine, electric fire, tumbler drier, electric kettle, electric iron on solar panels.”
At night, after a week of rain and fog.
“We can go nuclear and dispose of the byproducts by flinging them into the sun ”
Actually, 95% of nuclear waste is recyclable.
Good responses to my space elevator post. This is the type of critical thinking I need to hone the ideas. Open minds solve the toughest issues. Thanks to those who replied,….
My solar panels are tiny. No more than the size of a standard sheet of paper. Using solar panels for one porch light, electrical fencing, etc, is more economical than putting in a little wind turbine for each of those items or running wire out to them from the propane generator. I think you are confusing scale here. My scale is tiny. Propane runs appliances. Panels run little stuff around the place. I would not use my propane to zap the fence when I can use a point of use little solar panel. Basically, we have no difference of opinion here. I would not rely on a panel to run my oven. No one would. Not even greenies. Besides, my wood cook stove would do a better job. If I ever get my cabin built, I will be using wood, propane, solar, and possibly wind turbine if the location is windy enough. For farmers and ranchers, solar panels are an every day part of the operation. It isn’t a green thing. It isn’t a preference thing. It’s a kiss thing. It’s just simple and easy to install a single small panel at point of use. We don’t like complicated things out here.