Clouds part for blessing of York Minister’s 184 solar panels
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Panels installed on south quire roof expected to meet a third of church’s electricity needs. “And God said, Let there be light” – and on a witheringly cold winter morning there was light, as the Dean of York carried out a rooftop blessing for the minster’s 184 new solar panels.
![[Two people in hi-vis vests and hard hats lift a solar panel on to the minster's roof with a gargoyle in the foreground]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fe5d7d31081c60704412e2ba2efda46024e28154/0_550_8192_4914/master/8192.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The sky was blue and the sun shone when the Very Rev Dominic Barrington led the blessing ceremony as the panels were switched on for the first time. “They were absolutely gleaming,” said one witness. It was, though, freezing cold. “The holy water became holy ice.”.
The panels were installed on the south quire roof over the last four months and are expected to generate 70,000kWh of energy – enough to meet a third of the minster’s electricity requirements. Barrington blessed the panels after clambering up 16 floors of scaffolding wearing a hard hat which said simply: “The Dean”. He said he thought it was the “highest blessing” he had ever done in 30 years of ordained ministry.
“I am ecstatic that we’ve reached this milestone on my watch,” he told the BBC. “It’s a day which reminds us that life, power and energy come from God and it is also a wonderful step forward in our own approach to our needs for energy.”. He said he thought the founding fathers of the minster would applaud the occasion as they were at the “cutting edge of technology in their day”. The minster panels were the fourth solar installation on the minster estate in York which together would generate 120,000kWh of energy per year – enough to power 41 average homes.
