The Ethics of Adding Renewable Energy to Historically Preserved Buildings

Historic buildings are more than just architecture. They serve as anchor points for the world’s most interesting stories, from the lootings at Saint Basil’s Cathedral to Alice Roosevelt’s sordid smoking sessions on the White House roof. Is it possible to modernize a building’s energy usage without compromising history?

The Importance of Green Retrofitting 

Historic buildings may retain their original appearance, but they occupy a very different world than the one in which they were built. In 1805, there were just 1 billion people on the planet — and climate change was not yet a concern. Today there are 8 billion individuals that emit carbon, use energy and generate waste. 

Updating old buildings plays a crucial role in minimizing environmental impact. It also means historic homes can still serve as places to live. Many countries are experiencing a housing crisis, and retrofitting aging buildings with solar panels or wind turbines helps keep the structures relevant and adds more renewable options to the market. 

Additionally, bigger historic sites often serve as tourist destinations, and managing their impact becomes proportionally harder as more people visit. The Alamo has air conditioning. The Sistine Chapel uses thousands of LED lights to highlight Michelangelo’s paintings. Visitors may take it for granted, but providing these modern amenities requires ongoing energy use, which comes at an environmental cost. 

Public Pushback

Adding solar panels and wind turbines to historic sites and buildings can generate controversy. French courts nixed an off-shore wind project at Mont-Saint Michel. Plans to build a wind farm on England’s Jurassic Coast provoked public outrage. In historic Washington, D.C., neighborhoods, some preservationists even go so far as to fight homeowners looking to install rooftop solar panels on their properties. 

Various government agencies enforce the rules for historical restoration and updates, and these standards vary worldwide. In South Australia, guidelines state that solar panels on historic buildings should not be visible from the road. Some laws stipulate that sustainability upgrades cannot damage a structure and must match its color, materials and overall aesthetic. 

Keeping It Subtle

Most historic retrofits already follow strict guidelines. Tourist destinations, in particular, know how important maintaining a site’s integrity is.

Many historic buildings have already retrofitted their roofs with solar panels — and most people are none the wiser. The U.K.’s Gloucester Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral got photovoltaic tiles on their roofs in 2016 and 2020, respectively, but the panels are not visible from the ground. Jimmy Carter outfitted the White House with solar panels in 1979 and the Obama administration reinstalled them in 2010. 

Helping renewable energy infrastructure blend in seems key to appeasing die-hard preservationists. The Roman ruins of Pompeii now feature solar panels hidden in plain sight. Solar manufacturer Dyaqua creates subtle monocrystalline panels — which contain a single crystalline structure — that imitate ceramic, wood, stone, concrete or brick. At Pompeii, they take the form of terracotta tiles. The hidden solar panels help light the ancient city’s frescoes and have reduced the number of visible electrical poles and cables. 

Designers are also working on creating subtle rooftop airfoil blades that generate electricity from the wind. More historic sites will likely adopt incognito infrastructure to balance preservation with modern needs as techniques for building hidden solar panels and wind energy devices mature. Who knows? Maybe they already have. 

Moving Forward

Many people view modern changes as an intrusion on a building’s character. However, trying to meticulously preserve the past becomes problematic now that the world has 8 billion people, air pollution and the hottest average temperatures on record. 

It doesn’t make sense to shirk solar panels any more than it would to conserve a building’s asbestos or lead paint. Times have changed and historic buildings must evolve. Few people will notice the difference if it’s done right.