Each year, millions of tourists from around the world visit Pompeii. They admire its frescoes and archaeological ruins, but few of them ever notice the solar panels installed on the roof of the ancient Roman Villa of the Mysteries. “Here we can see one of the roof tiles above us,” says Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, holding one up. “From this side, it looks just like an ancient Roman tile. But if we look at it from behind, we can see that it is actually a small photovoltaic panel. It generates electricity to illuminate this villa, and a large share of the energy needed here comes directly from the roof installation.”

Developed by the Italian company Visen, these photovoltaic tiles could soon be deployed on other buildings within the Pompeii Archaeological Park that are not connected to the electricity grid. Beyond their practical applications, the initiative is part of a broader commitment to sustainability, aimed at reconciling environmental responsibility with the preservation of Pompeii's invaluable heritage. “The landscape is a fundamental part of our heritage,” says Zuchtriegel. “Protecting the landscape means, of course, restoring cultural sites and monuments appropriately, but it also means taking the environment into account. And this is an example of how these two aspects can be brought together.”

The Portuguese city of Évora shares similar concerns and has installed comparable photovoltaic tiles on the roof of its City Hall. “They are not normal shingles,” explains Humberto Queiroz, EDP Project Manager. “They are made of a semi-transparent epoxy material with solar cells embedded in the middle of it, which generates electricity for the self-consumption of this building. Around this area we have around 20 kilowatt-peak of PV shingles installed. Their objective is to blend into the architectural landscape of this building and preserve the heritage character of Évora.”

Due to its well-preserved historic centre, still partially enclosed by medieval walls, and its many monuments dating from different historical periods, including a magnificent Roman temple, Évora has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1986. PV shingles are among the solutions through which the European project POCITYF is helping the city reconcile heritage preservation with the modern challenges of sustainability.

“Being a World Heritage city, Évora has the responsibility to preserve its historic centre and safeguard its cultural heritage,” says Nuno Bilo, EU Project Coordinator at Évora Municipality. “However, we cannot remain frozen in time. We also need to move forward and find solutions that enable us, like many other historic cities across Europe, to address one of today's greatest challenges, which is decarbonisation.”

Among the solutions developed to address these challenges are the PV shingles produced by a small family-run company based in Camisano Vicentino, in north-eastern Italy. “Our tiles are made from a resin compound that forms the first layer,” explains Matteo Quagliato of Dyaqua. “We then take the photovoltaic cells, which have been soldered beforehand, and place them inside. After that, a second layer is added, made from a specially formulated compound. The final step is lowering the mould and removing the finished product, which consists of a resin tile containing the photovoltaic cells.”

Solutions like this one - and the different ones adopted in Pompeii - send an encouraging message to the rest of the world about the possibility of combining sustainability with heritage preservation. “The lesson Pompeii offers is that if this technology can work in a place that is so delicate, so closely monitored, so fragile, and so vast as our archaeological park, then it can work anywhere,” says Director Zuchtriegel.

Testing innovations that can be replicated in similar contexts across Europe is precisely the objective of the measures implemented in Évora through POCITYF: not only PV shingles, but also glass roofs integrating photovoltaic panels and solar canopies installed in the courtyards of schools in the historic centre. “Évora plays an important role in the project as, together with Alkmaar in the Netherlands, it is one of the two cities where we are installing our solutions. Its historic character makes our city a perfect testbed for these kinds of solutions, which blend into the architecture,” concludes Queiroz, who also serves as local coordinator of the EU initiative. “Our hope is that other cities in Europe can adopt these solutions to achieve their sustainability targets.”

Learn more by watching the Video News Release produced by Diego Giuliani: From Pompeii to Évora: invisible solar for heritage sites

Launched in 2019, the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project POCITYF has tested and demonstrated smart city innovations to raise energy performance in two lighthouse cities, Alkmaar (Netherlands) and Évora (Portugal), with a view to replicating them in six follower cities: Bari (Italy), Celje (Slovenia), Granada (Spain), Hvidovre (Denmark), Ioannina (Greece) and Újpest(Hungary).

POCITYF combines clusters of buildings that generate more energy than they consume – so-called positive energy blocks – with grid flexibility, e-mobility, innovative ICT and citizen engagement strategies, all while respecting urban cultural heritage. Now approaching its conclusion, the project continues to share its solutions so that other historic cities across Europe can pursue decarbonisation without compromising their cultural identity.

Contacts:

Project coordinator:
João Cravinho – EDP
joao.cravinho@edp.pt

Communication Secretariat:
info@pocityf.eu

Project website: https://pocityf.eu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pocityf/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfINly2sme7pxYOm8n2Z1Dw

POCITYF has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and Innovation programme under grant agreement N° 864400.