Pope Francis has long urged the Catholic Church to treat climate change as a moral issue. Building on that message, the Vatican is now committing about 100 million euros to an agrivoltaic plant that should supply the micro-state with clean power within two years.
What the plan entails
Vatican City covers just 44 hectares (109 acres), roughly one-eighth the size of Central Park. Because the new solar farm will not fit within the city's borders, it will be built on the 1,050-to-1,100-acre Santa Maria di Galeria estate that the Holy See owns outside Rome. The site will host photovoltaic panels and agricultural crops, a model known as agrivoltaics, and is expected to generate between 80 and 90 megawatts of electricity.
Why the investment matters
The Vatican's existing solar installation, 2,394 panels on the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall, produces about 300 megawatt-hours a year. The new plant will therefore be hundreds of times larger, helping the city meet its 2023 UN climate pledge to cut emissions by 20 % by 2030 and to reach net-zero by 2050.
Beyond the Vatican's own goals, the project highlights a stark contrast with the rapid expansion of data-centre power demand worldwide. While a single AI-focused data centre can draw up to 5 gigawatts, the Vatican's farm will generate a fraction of that, underscoring the modest scale of the micro-state's energy needs.
What happens next
After Pope Francis formalised the plan in a June 2024 letter titled "Fratello Sole", the Vatican's new pontiff, Pope Leo, visited the site in June 2025 and described it as "a wonderful opportunity". Italy approved the project in July 2025, and the Vatican signed a joint-venture agreement with the Italian utility ACEA in June 2026 to build the plant. Sources say construction should take 18 to 24 months.
"a wonderful opportunity"
When the farm becomes operational, it will not only power the Vatican's 800 residents and the thousands of lay workers who commute daily, but also serve as a symbolic example for other small states and religious organisations seeking to align moral leadership with concrete climate action.
Broader context
The Vatican's move follows a series of high-profile climate statements from Pope Francis, notably the 2015 encyclical Laudato Si', which called on wealthy nations to shoulder greater responsibility for emissions. By attaching a clear financial figure to the project, the Holy See is turning moral advocacy into measurable investment.
While the United States under President Donald Trump has withdrawn from recent UN climate talks and rolled back several clean-energy programmes, the Vatican's initiative demonstrates a contrasting approach, where religious authority is leveraged to accelerate renewable-energy deployment.