Churches Going Solar

Churches are practicing what they preach to protect the environment by going solar.

By Dan Rafter

The members of Unitarian Universalist Church West in the Wisconsin city of Brookfield wanted to do more than talk about treating the Earth well. They wanted to take action.

So, last spring, members of the congregation donated about $28,000 to help pay for the installation of 42 solar panels at the church. The panels now provide 15% of the church’s power needs.

The panels will also save the church some $2,000 in energy costs every year. But to Rev. Suzelle Lynch, the church’s pastor, the cost savings, while nice, are not the main benefit of the solar project.

“The congregation wanted a way where we could all work together to sustain the sacred Earth,” says Lynch. “We realized that by working together, we could make this project happen.

“Yes, there is a cost benefit to the church, which is wonderful,” she adds. “But that wasn’t the primary impetus. The primary impetus was our values.”

The Brookfield church is far from being the only church across the country to have installed solar panels. Several other congregations have also taken the step.

And, officials at these solar-powered churches expect other congregations to follow their lead. Tapping into solar and other renewable sources of energy is one way to do good in the world, and it helps ensure a better world for future generations. In short, solar panels and alternative energy fit well into the mission statement of any church.

“Religious institutions have always played leading roles on important social issues,” says Rev. Fletcher Harper, executive director of GreenFaith, an interfaith coalition for the environment based in New Brunswick, NJ. “Climate change is such an issue; these institutions are going with solar power because they want to demonstrate leadership on this issue. They are deeply concerned with the mission of religious institutions to care for the Earth and show environmental stewardship.”

Harper’s group alone has provided counseling and assistance to 25 churches in and around New Jersey that have installed their own solar panels.

And whenever one church installs solar, it leads to even more religious institutions doing the same, Harper says. When members of congregations see a church installing solar panels, they return to their own houses of worship with one question: Why can’t we go with solar power, too?

Going Solar in Delaware
Members of the Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, DE, turned on their church’s solar power system for the first time this August. The 36-kW system from GE Energy is projected to provide two-thirds of the church’s required power. The church is now the first in Delaware to install solar panels.

Rev. Bruce Gillette, who-along with his wife Carolyn-serves as pastor of Limestone Presbyterian, says the decision to go solar stemmed from the Presbyterian Church’s own teachings. The church’s constitution states that church members are stewards who are called to use the Earth’s resources responsibly and to develop technologies that help preserve the environment and
enhance life.

Installing solar panels seemed like one way to achieve the goals set out by the church constitution, Gillette says. “We wanted to better care for God’s creation,” he says. “Solar panels are one way that we can make the world better for our children and grandchildren—for everyone.”

The GE Energy GEPvp-200 system was not inexpensive. In all, installing the system cost the church $251,790, Gillette says. The state of Delaware, under its alternative-energy program, covered $125,895 of this cost.

The church took out a loan from the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program to cover the rest of the costs. Church members, though, hope the savings the church realizes, by producing its own electricity along with the funds it will get from renewable energy credits for producing clean electricity, will pay off the 10-year loan the church took out to pay for the rest of the solar installation.

Once the loan is paid off, church leaders hope that the solar project will actually begin paying dollars to Limestone Presbyterian. Because the solar panels are guaranteed to 25 years by GE, the solar project has the potential to return a total of about $40,000 to the church during the eleventh to twenty-fifth years of the panels’ lifespan.

Still, as with the Unitarian Universalist Church West in Wisconsin, financial savings and benefits weren’t the main reason that church members at Limestone Presbyterian decided to install solar panels.

Officials with the Presbyterian church have long been concerned with the negative impact of climate change on the Earth, Gillette says. He believes that, by encouraging its member churches to install solar panels or get their power from other renewable sources, the national church is doing its part to help reduce global warming. “Solar panels will help Limestone Presbyterians do what we say we believe we are called to do in our church constitution and study papers,” says Gillette.

The Gillettes, themselves, were no strangers to solar panels. The couple has had solar panels working on their own home’s roof since December 2007. They know then, that solar energy is clean and efficient, and that it can reduce power bills significantly.

One of the other reasons that Limestone Presbyterian members went with solar was because they were concerned about the large amount of pollution that is generated by traditional large-scale, centralized power plants and didn’t want their church building to contribute to the problem. Solar, and other forms of decentralized, onsite energy, do not send nearly as much pollution into the atmosphere. The church members wanted to reduce their reliance on traditional power sources.

Relying on energy that is clean is just one more way that the church members fulfill their mission to be stewards of the Earth, Gillette says. It’s also a way for members of the congregation to do their part to leave behind a better world—at least in their small part of it—for future generations.

“Jesus was concerned with the whole person, including their physical well-being,” he says. “We are called to follow his example and do what we can to help everyone’s health.

“The solar panels will result in less pollution and better health,” he adds. “We have a genuine concern here about the Earth’s worsening condition and its impact on future generations.”

Tending to the Earth in Wisconsin
Lynch says that the members of her congregation share the belief that by relying on solar and other forms of renewable energy, their church is doing its part to protect the planet.

This has long been a goal at the Wisconsin church, Lynch says. In the early 2000s, the church’s Earth Ministry Committee recommended that the church purchase 10 to 20% of its energy from green, environmentally friendly sources.

The church’s members, though, proposed a more ambitious feat: They decided that their church should get all of its power from green sources. The church is now a Green Sanctuary, a Unitarian Universalist church that focuses on sustainable living. The church purchases its 100% green energy from We Energies, a public utility in Wisconsin.

The church’s solar power system, which went live June 5, 2008, consists of 42 panels that generate 200 watts of energy each, for a total energy output of 8.4 kW. The panels are expected to generate more than 10,000 kWh of energy a year.

The energy from the panels does not directly power the church building. Instead, the church sells the power the panels generate to We Energies. An inverter converts the energy solar DC power to grid-ready AC power. The inverter then feeds the electricity to the public grid.

“This whole project came from the grassroots of our church congregation,” says Lynch. “It wasn’t that the board of trustees said that we were going to do this. Members of the congregation, out of our continuing green efforts, decided that this was something we should explore.”

Many congregation members were considering adding solar power systems to their own homes, she says. Unfortunately, the cost of such systems proved too high for many of them. These members decided that if they all pulled their money together, though, they could afford a system for the church.

This meant that congregation members were raising money for the solar power system before the project was even approved by the church’s board of trustees. “The board members then looked at the situation, realized that this was a train leaving the station, and wanted to get on it,” says Lynch.

The church received a $27,500 grant from We Energies to help pay for its solar panels. It also earned a $22,000 Focus on Energy grant from the Wisconsin Utilities Benefit Program. Congregation members raised the remaining $28,000 on their own.

“We did this with no trouble at all,” notes Lynch. “Some put in as much as $5,000—the largest gift we received. Many people gave what they could-$100, $200, and $300. This was a way we could sustain the sacred Earth. We all worked together, so that we could make it happen.”

She emphasizes that, though the church will save more than $2,000 a year on electricity costs, the financial benefits weren’t the reason behind the decision to install solar panels.

Instead, members wanted to do their part to do good for the planet. “We do have members who have installed solar panels in their own homes,” says Lynch. “They did it knowing that the energy savings they get won’t pay off the cost of the panels in their lifetimes. They just have that sense of commitment to preserving the planet. That’s what our congregation has, too.”

Leading by Example in New Jersey

Rev. Jeffrey Mays, pastor of Christ Congregation in Princeton, NJ, has long preached about the importance of taking care of the Earth. It’s little surprise then, that he is especially pleased with his congregation’s decision to install solar panels on the roof of the church, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, the American Baptist Churches, and the Alliance of Baptists.

According to a statement on the church’s Web site, church members believe that it is part of their jobs as Christians to use the Earths’ resources responsibly. Part of that job means relying on renewable energy sources such as solar instead of rapidly diminishing fossil fuels.

“It’s the difference between being responsible, and acting like we are the owners of the Earth and can do whatever we want with it,” says Mays.

The church turned on its 7.2-kW solar electric system in January 2003. Since then, the system has been providing about two-thirds of the church’s energy needs.

As with other churches, the members of Christ Congregation relied on the expertise of their fellow members before installing the panels. Several church members had already installed solar panels on the roofs of their own homes. Their advice played a key role in steering the church toward its own solar solution, Mays says.

The road to solar, though, wasn’t an entirely smooth one. The church obviously needed enough hours of sunlight to power the system. To get enough direct sunlight, though, the church needed to remove a 60-foot tall pin oak tree on its property.

This caused serious problems, as several neighbors objected to the removal of the tree. The neighbors, in fact, arrived at the church just 30 minutes before church-hired arborists were to begin cutting the tree down.

An impasse continued until a local lawyer worked out a compromise. With the help of the lawyer, church members shared their story with the community, explaining that the solar project would be a positive for the environment and would reduce the church’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The church eventually won a new permit, one that gave it permission to cut down the oak tree, but also required it to plant three new trees in the community and three more on its own property.

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The final twist came when arborists were removing the pin oak. They discovered that a bacterial leaf scorch had infected the old tree. Turns out, the tree would have had to have been removed anyway.

That hurdle overcome, church members quickly approved the solar project. Today, all the energy that the panels produce is used. The church stores no excess energy in batteries, and instead, sends it to the public grid.

“We are all very happy with this system,” says Mays. “In light of all the news on global warming, in light of the issues surrounding petroleum and energy, we decided it would be beneficial not only to us, but, in some small way, to the larger community and to the world, if we would seek alternative ways of generating such things as electricity.

“We are here for a short time on this planet,” continues Mays. “But we are here only as stewards of creation. It is our call, our mission, and our responsibility as people of faith to try to live that out. It is our responsibility in some way to benefit coming generations.”

The best news, as far as Mays is concerned, is that several other local churches have either installed, or are considering installing, solar panels in their own houses of worship.

“I hope other churches and other non-profit organizations will consider this,” he says. “They are making so many advances in solar. It seems almost monthly that we read about some new advance in the solar energy collection realm. I think it is becoming more and more cost effective to install these, too. So, we hope to see even more houses of worship commit to solar.”

Like other churches, Christ Congregation has seen its monthly energy bills decrease since turning on the solar panels. The church has also taken advantage of solar renewable energy credits.

“There is an opportunity to recoup some of the costs, and that makes this very much less of a financial burden to install these panels,” says Mays.

Harper, from GreenFaith, says that more churches would go solar if the process was simpler. He would especially like to see a simpler way for churches and other non-profit organizations to obtain financing for solar and other renewable energy sources.

“The whole renewable energy industry has suffered because financing is so uncertain,” states Harper. “There is an uncertain regulatory landscape that makes it more difficult than it has to be for churches to decide to go solar.

“I think we’d be seeing even more churches go this route if there was more structure to the renewable energy market-if it was more stable,” he adds.

Most church leaders are far from experts when it comes to solar and other forms of renewable energy, Harper says. Learning about solar panels and photovoltaic power can sometimes be an intimidating process. This, too, has slowed the number of churches that have installed solar panels.

“Leaders of religious institutions do have to climb that learning curve to understand how solar works,” says Harper. “They have to study the facts to understand how the financing behind them works to make sure that they are protecting the health of their institutions.”

Lynch, from Wisconsin, and other pastors agree that a growing number of churches are installing solar panels today. These pastors also agree that this is just the beginning, and that many more religious institutions will embrace solar in the near future.

“After we put up our panels, I quickly received 10 phone calls from other churches asking about our process, and about how the panels are working,” says Lynch. “I think that’s wonderful. We are trying to spread the solar gospel here, and I think people are listening.”