Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a working-class town outside Barcelona, has placed solar panels atop mausoleums at its cemetery, transforming a place of perpetual rest into one buzzing with renewable energy.

Flat, open and sun-drenched land is so scarce in Santa Coloma that the graveyard was just about the only viable spot to move ahead with its solar energy programme.

The power the 462 panels produce - equivalent to the yearly use by 60 homes - flows into the local energy grid for normal consumption, and is one community's nod to the fight against global warming.

'The best tribute we can pay to our ancestors, whatever your religion may be, is to generate clean energy for new generations,' said Ms Esteve Serret, director of Conste-Live Energy, a Spanish company that runs the cemetery.

The cemetery holds the remains of about 57,000 people and the solar panels cover less than 5per cent of the total surface area. They cost ¥720,000 (S$1.4 million) to install, and each year will keep more than 60 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, said Ms Serret.

ASSOCIATED PRESS