‘A beautiful idea’: This French town is making its cemetery a source of solar energy
A French town is installing a canopy of solar panels over its cemetery that will distribute energy to local residents. The idea didn’t start with solar. Saint-Joachim is located in the middle of the Brière marsh - a vast peat bog north of the Loire estuary. When it outgrew its churchyard cemetery in 1970, a new graveyard was created to the east of the town’s main island, a drop from six to zero metres above sea level. Upsettingly for families with loved ones buried there, that means the cemetery often floods in winter. Draining the ground would be a constant battle with the wetland, so Saint-J...