'If York Minster can do it, everybody else can'

Extreme weather from climate change, in particular rainfall, is now the "biggest threat" to York Minster, officials have said.

It has led to the decay of its stone and movement in the Grade I listed cathedral, which has caused "huge concern".

To reduce its carbon footprint, 184 solar panels are being installed on the minster's South Quire roof.

"If we can do it, everybody else can do it because our climate is changing," said Alex McCallion, the minster's director of works and precinct.

"We're seeing that first hand, while looking after this very precious building."

He explained more intense rainfall meant water could not get off the building quickly enough, which had increased the need for stone renewal.

"Then the water has to go somewhere, so that's changing the hydrology of the precinct and we are seeing movement in the building itself," he added.

Along with the solar panels on three other properties in the precinct, the project will produce enough electricity to run 50 average UK households.

The aim is for it to be up and running by the end of the year.

Generating nearly 70,000 kWh of energy annually, about a third of York Minster’s total energy consumption, the panels will reduce its annual carbon emissions by about 13 tonnes of CO2.

Mr McCallion said it had taken seven years to get to this point, with more work planned for next year.

A project in Dean's Park could use ground source heat pumps to heat the cathedral in the future, allowing York Minster to switch its gas boilers off.

"We're not the first cathedral to do it," Mr McCallion added.

"Gloucester, Bradford and Chester have all got solar panels but we are the mother cathedral of the North.

"The Archbishop's seat now has solar power generation."

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