Feb 22 2011
The Holy Family Catholic Church in Saskatoon is undergoing renovation. The parish, in an effort to achieve sustainability, plans to utilize the 2,381 hours of yearly sunshine in the process, and is embedding solar cells on its new windows.
Sarah Hall Studio's stained glass solar windows for the Holy Family Catholic Church
Sarah Hall Studio is making the stained glass solar windows. 54 solar panels have been used in three sections and the art work depicts the prairies sky. Glasmalerei Peters in Paderborn, Germany has air-brushed the glass enamels. The art glass panels were then tempered at Wulfmeier. Following this process 1,013 silver solar cells were soldered onto the panels by hand. These solar cells have the capacity to collect solar energy, which would be sufficient to provide power for five homes through the 12 months.
The Holy Family Catholic Church has followed the Vatican in embarking on this $675,000 green initiative. In 2008, the Vatican had installed 2,700 solar panels.
The installations of the solar panels are to take place in spring, and will make it the first North American church to utilize solar energy.