St. Peter’s Basilica at Early Morning. Image credit: Andreas Tille

As part of its efforts to become the world’s first carbon neutral state, the Vatican has completed installation of a 5,000 square meter rooftop solar array.

Located on top of Nervi Hall and under construction for a bit over a month, the €1.2 million ($1.55 million) solar power system, consisting of some 2,400 panels was donated by German firms SolarWorld and SMA Solar Technologies. But that’s just not all the Vatican has up its renewable energy sleeve:

Reuters is reporting that the governor of Vatican City, Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, said that the Vatican is considering building a 740 acre solar array on land it owns north of Rome. The land now contains the transmission center for Vatican Radio; the mooted solar power system would supply six times the energy the radio station requires, with the remainder of the electricity to be sold into the Italian national grid.

via Reuters