“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.
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.
They were part of a wider neighbourhood plan to address 21st century challenges, the minster authorities said. “Principally responding to the climate emergency and the impacts of climate change on the fragile masterpiece that is York Minster’s 800-year-old building.”
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Alex McCallion, the director of works and precinct at York Minster, said: “Extreme weather brought about by climate change is the greatest threat to the fabric of York Minster. These solar panels signify a significant step forward in our decarbonisation journey and is a significant project of our neighbourhood plan.”
McCallion said the panels “should be celebrated as a major step forward and show that if we can do it at York Minster, everyone can and should”.