Background

St. Luke’s signed a contract for our solar panel project in July 2024 with Sustainable Energy Systems (SES).  Although the concept of a solar panel project for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is not new, there were several obstacles that needed to be overcome and addressed.

No one was opposed to the idea of going solar.  The initial hurdle that we had to overcome was that when the idea was first put forward, the roof on the church was old and needed replacement.  It doesn’t make sense to install solar panels on an old roof, as the panels would have had to been deinstalled and then reinstalled once the roof was replaced.  Instead, the solar project was shelved until the roof was replaced several years ago.

Then, we had other competing priorities, such as the renovation and extension of the Parish Hall and the installation of new lighting in the parking lot surrounding the church.  As everyone knows, church funds are not unlimited!  When COVID hit, our attention was (rightly) focused elsewhere – addressing how we could conduct services outside and then safely hold services back in the Nave, with streaming of the services online for anyone who was unable to attend in person or who was uncomfortable doing so.

Solar Panels are Only a Part of our Creation Care Efforts

Solar panels are the most visible sign of St. Luke’s commitment to Creation Care.  Over the past several years, we have replaced many light fixtures and bulbs and added insulation wherever possible.  And a solar panel project is not the last action that St. Luke’s will take in support of Creation Care.  We hope to do even more to reduce our carbon footprint.  We still have some old, original, single-pane windows that need to be replaced.  And, we need to find a way to insulate the stained glass windows at the front of the church without detracting from their beauty.  We can also expand our Creation Care efforts by replacing invasive species of plants with native plants.  We want to find ways to reduce our energy consumption, and (possibly) provide encouragement to parishioners and other neighbors as they undertake their own Creation Care activities at home and at work.

Funding for the Solar Panel Project

In a way, it helps that we waited until now to install a solar panel project.  While there have been tax credits in the past for energy improvement projects, these credits were limited to persons or entities who paid Federal taxes and therefore were eligible to receive tax relief in the form of a credit.  As a non-profit entity, St. Luke’s was unable to take advantage of these tax credits.  But the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included a provision that would allow non-profit entities such as churches the ability to receive a credit of 30% of the total cost of approved energy efficiency projects.  (A New York Times article from August 2022 states that based on several independent analyses, the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, taken together, is projected to reduce 2030 US greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 2005 levels.)

Even so, a solar panel project is not inexpensive, and if the church was going to pay for the solar project out of existing funds, the estimated payback period to break even on the cost of the project is 7.8 years.

Fortunately, a relatively small number of very generous parishioners who were approached about this project were willing to contribute funds that are specifically for Creation Care projects at St. Luke’s, of which the solar panel project is the most visible (and the most expensive).  The total amount that was raised so far slightly exceeds the net cost of the entire solar panel project – the net being the 70% of the total cost of the project that remains once the 30% tax credit is received.  The Vestry at St. Luke’s authorized the expenditure of roughly 30% of the cost of the solar panel project, and this expenditure will be reimbursed once the tax credit is received.

Key Milestones

As many of you already know, the steeple at St. Luke’s also serves as a cell tower for four mobile phone carriers, and the electrical apparatus for this function is visible on the East side of the church’s roof.  A site visit was conducted to inspect the roof and the electrical room to ensure that the existing infrastructure would support the solar panel project.  Once completed, an engineering design effort was conducted, and plans for our solar panel project had to be submitted to both Fairfax County and Dominion energy for approval.  It was impossible to lock down a date for the solar panel installation until all of these steps were completed, since the whole project could have been derailed or delayed if there had been any problems. 

Now that wall engineering has been completed and all permits have been received, we can proceed with the project’s installation!

We don’t have a firm date for the installation of the solar panel project.  Dominion Energy has officially approved the project, which means that we will have the documents to proceed as soon as the structural engineering documents have been completed.  Once we have that, we will file for our final installation permits, and when the permits are received, we can schedule a firm date for the installation.

Once the installation has been completed, it will need to be inspected, and then we need to file an Application for Permission to Operate – and only after those milestones have been accomplished will we be able to generate electricity from the solar panels.  It’s hard not to be able to provide hard dates at this point, but we are working as fast as we can within the required process, and we’ll make a big announcement when we have the final dates set!

We hope that our solar panel project will encourage other congregations and individuals to consider whether a solar panel project might be right for them, as well!