Bas-Rhin: steeple dispute over solar panels on the roof of the Muttersholtz church

A project to install photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Protestant church in Muttersholtz (Bas-Rhin) is under study. A collective of citizens would be ready to finance and operate the equipment, but some residents are against it. Or when the ecological confronts the aesthetic.

The public meeting organized at the town hall of Muttersholtz (Bas-Rhin) on the evening of June 30, 2021 was somewhat stormy. Its purpose was to present in detail the project to install a photovoltaic power station on the roof of the Protestant church in the town. It would be a question of covering 200m2 of its south side, particularly well exposed to the sun, with solar panels which would make it possible to produce electricity.

It was the municipality of Muttersholtz, owner of the building, which came up with the idea for this installation. "We are engaged in a major dynamic of energy transition, we want to become a territory with positive energy, explains Mayor Patrick Barbier . We have already produced several pieces of equipment in this direction. The roof of this church is the one that best lends itself in the municipality to the installation of photovoltaic panels, which is why we have launched a call for proposals”. An approach supported by the city council, which unanimously adopted this call for projects in September 2020. The video below shows the main points.

A collective of citizens responded to this call. Gathered in a company, "central Alsace village power plants", around sixty inhabitants and companies in the Sélestat sector have decided to become players in the energy transition by designing and operating production plants on a voluntary basis. renewable energy. “We prepare and finance the projects ourselves: everyone is a shareholder and puts money into the pot, explains Eloi Navarro, the collective's president. Once the equipment is in operation, we resell the electricity to an energy supplier. With the profits, we reimburse ourselves and reinvest in other initiatives in favor of the energy transition”.

@6tendesign @Blondiegrrl @mccmcc77 @lauragorsky @ChangeInLibya lmao Yes, Daniel, you absolutely can. Modern tech… https://t.co/Q7nZHhwutX

— El Bigote Thu Feb 18 16:18:42 +0000 2021

But in Muttersholtz, covering the church with solar panels is not without raising opposition from some residents. They were about fifty to express their disapproval during the public meeting. "This building is the last remarkable building that remains in the village, argues Jean-François Barth, spokesperson for the collective" Touch not my church ". We don't want to waste it for a few kilowatt/h per year. “The resident has launched a petition, which has collected 450 signatures. He says he is ready to lead the fight to the end in the name of the architectural integrity of this church, the first foundations of which date back to the 13th century.

What the promoters of the photovoltaic power plant respond to is the Eiffel Tower or the reconstruction of the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle, projects also accused in their time of disfiguring heritage but which have today become symbols of it. “We have no intention of damaging the structure of the building. This is the advantage of photovoltaic panels: they are placed on the roof and therefore do not require removing the tiles, specifies Eloi Navarro who highlights a similar achievement already carried out on the roof of another Alsatian church, in the municipality of Boesenbiesen, six kilometers away, and whose photo we see below.

An opposition which places the president of the presbyteral council in embarrassment. "Personally, I have nothing against solar panels but many find it a shame for the visual aspect", comments the chairman of the council, Daniel Frey. To circumvent this controversy, he raises another issue: “we are in the process of renovating the organ and we are worried about the possible fire risks that the installation of these solar panels could entail”. While the pastor in charge of climate justice within UEPAL (Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine) is resolutely in favor of the project: "the Church must set an example, prove that it is committed in the concerns of the future, comments Jean-Sébastien Ingrand. We have in Muttersholtz a wonderful opportunity to do so. Religious buildings are not only a heritage, they are also living communities that must act."

“Opponents argue their aesthetic emotion, notes Mayor Patrick Barbier. What I oppose to them my emotion of grandfather. I have a one year old grandson. It is he who will find himself living with climatic conditions that will have become really problematic. Now is the time to act ". The mayor now relies on the municipal council, to which this proposal will be submitted again next fall. If the opposition in the municipality is too strong, an alternative solution could be envisaged: the installation of a photovoltaic plant on the roof of the municipal workshops of the municipality. But their current frame does not support the weight of the solar panels. The project could therefore prove to be much more cumbersome to carry out and finance.