ROME — Italy agreed Thursday to a Vatican plan to turn a 430-hectare (1,000-acre) field north of Rome, once the source of controversy between the two, into a vast solar farm that will generate enough electricity to meet the needs of Vatican City and turn it into the world’s first carbon-neutral state.
The Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, signed the agreement with Italy’s ambassador to the Holy See, Francesco Di Nitto. The Italian parliament must approve the arrangement, since the territory enjoys extraterritorial status that must be extended.
The Santa Maria Galeria site has long been the source of controversy because of electromagnetic waves emitted by Vatican Radio towers located there since the 1950s. The once-rural site some 35 kilometers (20 miles) north of Rome is dominated by two dozen short- and medium-wave radio antennae that transmit news from the Catholic Church in dozens of languages around the globe.
Over the years as the area became more developed, residents began complaining of health problems, including instances of childhood leukemia which they blamed on the electromagnetic waves generated by the towers. The Vatican denied there was any causal link but cut back the transmissions.
Pope Francis last year tasked the Vatican to study developing the area into a vast solar farm, hoping to put into practice his preaching about the need to transition away from fossil fuels and find clean, carbon-neutral energy sources.
Pope Leo XIV visited the site in June and affirmed that he intended to see Francis’ vision through. Leo has strongly taken up Francis’ ecological mantle, recently using a new set of prayers and readings inspired by Pope Francis’ environmental legacy.
The agreement signed Thursday stipulates that the development of the site will preserve the agricultural use of the land and minimize the environmental impact on the territory, according to a Vatican statement.
Vatican officials have estimated it will cost under 100 million euros to develop the solar farm, and that once approved by Italy, the contracts to do the work can be put up for bids.
In the 1990s at the height of the controversy, residents sued Vatican Radio officials, claiming the emissions exceeded the Italian legal limit, but the court cleared the transmitter. In 2012, the Vatican announced it was cutting in half the hours of transmission from the site, not because of health concerns but because of cost-saving technological advances in internet broadcasting.