Power from the Great Beyond: Spanish Town Puts Solar Panels on Graves

November 25th, 2008 by Ariel Schwartz

We don’t usually expect graveyards to give us much besides a chance to express grief, but a small town outside Barcelona, Spain has found a new use for them: energy powerhouses. The town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet has placed 462 solar panels on top of mausoleums in the local cemetery. The panels will provide enough power for 60 homes.

Apparently, flat, open, sun-accessible land is so hard to come by in the town that the graveyard was the only viable place to install solar panels.

And while some may consider the move sacrilegious, the company that is running the renewable energy program believes that the best way to pay tribute to the dead is by letting them generate renewable energy for the current generation. That’s something I find hard to argue with.

Photo Credit: AP









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