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Hi, I'm Neil, the host of the good news podcast.

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This is your source for good news, fun stories and Sonic Joy.

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All of this goodness is coming to you from beautiful Chicago, Illinois.

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Today's good news comes to us from northwestern France, near the Bay of Biscay and a little town called Saint-Joachim.

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The French pronunciation has such a nice sound to it to set the stage.

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This little town is in a big marsh.

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It and the surrounding towns are all part of the Briere Regional National Park, which is full of canals and waterways, peat bogs and beautiful marshlands.

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Truly, it looks idyllic.

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But in this little town, one issue has come up in the last say 50 years and that is its graveyard.

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Back in 1970 the town needed to expand out of its traditional teeny churchyard cemetery and started burying people in a distressingly low plot of land.

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Nowadays, it regularly floods, gets tons of rain and can be pretty hard to navigate.

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So the town came up with a plan.

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Let's cover the whole thing in a canopy.

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So it stays a little bit drier and we can harvest that rainwater with our canopies and use it to maintain a sports field right nearby, pretty darn good.

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But listeners what can make this plan even better?

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Translucent photovoltaic solar panels.

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That's right.

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A small French town of 4000 people right by the sea is covering their cemetery in solar panels and then distributing it at very low cost to the people of the town.

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This is good news.

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Through and through.

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I found myself stuck on the system they're going to use to distribute this power.

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I promise I won't get wonky and try to describe it.

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But it seems like when the project is fully completed and online, they're going to take a very equitable and communal approach to distributing this clean power.

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According to estimates, everyone taking part in this solar power plan should save between 100 and 250 Euro every year, which is certainly nothing to scoff at.

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And I'm totally smitten by the concept of walking around, paying tribute to those past walking under futuristic translucent solar panels that are providing clean energy to the living.

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There is definitely some metaphor in there.

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From what I read, I read about this in Euronews, it seems like the first phase.

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A small prototype just began construction about a week ago.

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Hopefully, this thing really takes off and becomes the norm for cemeteries where it makes sense.

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I love reusing unexpected spaces for solar panels.

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I'm looking at you parking lots.

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That's the good news I have for you today.

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Enjoy the rest of your day.

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Thanks for listening.

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If you've got good news or an idea for the show.

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The music you hear on the show is from Paddington Bear.

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Have a great day.