Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine

Last week the Vatican hit the switch on a new lightning system that’s using 2,400 solar panels, according to a story in Reuters. On Wednesday Pope Benedict spoke in front of what he called the “first ecological general audience in the Vatican” in Nervi Hall, which now gets its light, heat, and air conditioning from solar energy. The new system will cut 225 tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions in the Vatican, which stated it plans to use 20 percent alternative energy sources by 2020.