Daylife/AP Photo by Manu Fernandez

A Spanish city has found an unusual place to generate renewable energy – the local cemetery. Santa Coloma de Gramanet, near Barcelona, has placed 462 solar panels over its multi-storey mausoleums.

Officials say the scheme was initially greeted with derision, but families who use the cemetery eventually supported the idea following a public campaign.

There are now plans to erect more panels at the cemetery and triple the amount of electricity generated.

The cemetery was chosen for the project because it is one of only a few open, sunny places in the crowded city, which has a population of 124,000 crammed into 1.5 sq miles.

Nice to see reason prevail.




  1. That should leave the dead with plenty of power for their iPods …

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  3. More importantly, why do the dead need real estate in such a crowded city. When I die, I don’t want any real estate at all. Just remove the poisonous bits of me (mercury fillings, etc.), fill me with sand (so I sink), and chuck me in the ocean. That should get me back into the food chain fairly quickly.

  4. smartalix says:

    That’s thinking outside of the box!

    (rimshot)

  5. Sea Lawyer says:

    #3, exactly. if this was a story about “reason prevailing” it wouldn’t be about housing, in perpetuity, for dead bodies.

  6. James Hill says:

    Smart stuff. Now only if solar panels were a better return on their investment, everyone would be covering everything with these.

  7. smartalix says:

    6,

    soon enough

  8. AdmFubar says:

    uhm what about solar panels on where all those lwho havent died yet, live?? wouldnt that generate even more power????

  9. Kanjy says:

    “There are now plans to erect more panels at the cemetery and triple the amount of electricity generated.”

    Ugh… I don’t want to ever see “erect” and “cemetery” in the same sentence ever again.

  10. green says:

    Since when are solar panels and batteries clean tech :/

  11. Cawst Lee says:

    The cost was almost $1 million dollars. Powers only 60 homes so they CLAIM, probably ones without air conditioning, or washers/dryers, or electric cars to recharge every night, that energy would be extra cost from the grid every month. The cost per home comes out to $16,666.67 each. Over a 10 year life (don’t expect solar panels to last 30 years… they crap out in 2 years on my walkway) that’s a cost of $138.89 per month per home for this solar installation. The tonnage of carbon “saved” from the atmosphere would fit in the back seat of each of these homeowners electric cars, and could easily be buried in the back yard, landfill, or other suitable location, or possibly let nature use rain to bring it back down into the Earth. These forms of recycling the tons of carbon “saved” would be considered a “green thing to do” as carbon and oxygen are building blocks of life. Any questions?

  12. moss says:

    #11 – the solar panels on your “walkway”? Right next to your Rove-approved garden gnome?

    There are 1st-gen PV panels on my neighborhood that are 20+ years old cranking out 85-90% of original. Do you need everything read over the radio to you?

  13. Billy Bob says:

    Next they’ll dig up the bodies and convert them to biofuel. Finally, renewable energy!

  14. smartalix says:

    10,

    since when are solar panels dirty tech?


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