The Skellig lighthouse off the Kerry coast, one of the oldest and most inaccessible in Ireland, is going solar.
The Great Skellig (Skellig Michael) on which twin lighthouses were built in 1826, was the site of one of the most remote monastic settlements in Christendom and remains a place of pilgrimage and veneration for many.
Now the Commissioners of Irish Lights have decided that maintaining the diesel generators that power the lighthouse is too expensive at an annual cost of £150,000.
Instead they plan to harness the power of the sun, using solar panels to store energy in batteries. The annual saving should be around £25,000, according to the Commissioners. The work of installing the panels will begin next spring.
The four-acre barren outcrop, about eight miles west of Bolus Head and 12 miles by sea from Portmagee, was where St Fionan established his monastery in the late sixth century, and for the next 600 years the monks' presence was recorded there. The beautifully crafted stone huts they lived in are still there.
The Skellig was one of the first Irish lighthouses and in becoming the first major one to use solar power it will blaze a trail for the other 82 lighthouses around the coast.
The keeper of the lighthouse, Mr Richard Foran, regularly visits Skellig Michael by helicopter, usually with a maintenance crew, to ensure everything is in working order.
The approaches to the rock are so perilous that in 1790 the Knight of Kerry asked the authorities to light it to prevent further loss of life at sea.
Two lighthouses were built in 1862 to warn shipping approaching from different directions and to help to distinguish the Skellig from Loop Head. By 1870 the technology was good enough to allow just one revolving light on the rock.
In 1941 an American reconnaissance aircraft flew over the rock to check out rumours that German submarines were being aided off the Irish coast. It flew too close and crashed with the loss of seven crew. No trace of the wreck or the crew was ever found.
Mr Foran spends nights alone on the rock. "Plenty to do like reading and television," he says.