The desecration of York Minster with alien solar panels won’t solve climate change (York Minster submits plans to put solar panels on cathedral roof, November 18).
Photovoltaic roofs are not going to save the world. They require energy and resources in their production that is not recouped in the lifetime of the product.
Photovoltaic receptors require enormous heat in the manufacturing process. Most of them are made in China using coal to provide that heat.
The Minster authorities love to virtue-signal their green credentials but they are effectively putting coal on the roof of a Grade 1-listed building - not what the custodians of this city’s greatest heritage asset should be doing.
After the Minster fire of 1984 there was a debate whether trusses in the South Transept roof should be timber replacements of the original or modern steelwork.
Despite the trusses being hidden from view it was decided York Minster should be restored as the original builders intended it to be.
Solar panels on York Minster are neither essential nor appropriate and it is clearly a daft idea. The Dean and Chapter have a duty to preserve and protect that building, not despoil it. Shame on them.
Matthew Laverack, Architect, Lord Mayors Walk, York
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