Pope Francis decreed Wednesday that an area of northern Rome, long the source of controversy because of electromagnetic waves emitted by Vatican Radio towers, will now house a field of solar panels to fuel Vatican City.
Citing the Vatican’s pledge in UN climate treaties to curb carbon emissions, Francis tasked a commission of Vatican officials with developing the solar farm at Santa Maria di Galeria. In a decree, he said the solar energy generated would sufficiently fuel the radio operations there and the Vatican City State itself.
The 430-hectare (1,063-acre) Santa Maria di Galeria site, which enjoys extraterritorial status, was inaugurated in 1957 as a base for Vatican Radio. At the time, the pope’s broadcaster transmitted Catholic and Vatican news in dozens of languages worldwide via two dozen short- and medium-wave radio antennae crowding the landscape.