Italy has agreed 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 the Holy See hopes will generate enough electricity to meet its needs and turn Vatican City into the world’s first carbon-neutral state. The agreement stipulates that the development of the Santa Maria Galeria site will preserve the agricultural use of the land and minimize the environmental impact on the territory. The Vatican will be exempt from paying Italian import taxes for the solar panels, but won’t benefit from the usual financial incentives that Italians enjoy when they convert to solar.
