By Reagan Russell

Picture courtesy of Canva

On July 28, Appalachian Voices partnered with the Appalachian Photo voltaic Finance Fund, Volt Power Utility and St. Paul Lutheran Church to current a webinar to particularly encourage locations of religion to make the swap to photo voltaic vitality.

I hosted the webinar as a part of my work as an Appalachian Voices summer time intern, which centered on an initiative to encourage communities of religion to make the swap to photo voltaic vitality. I coordinated with a bunch of various stakeholders throughout the company and nonprofit sectors.

This work is essential to me as a result of I consider locations of worship have the power to play a pivotal function in making our world extra sustainable. They are often function fashions for his or her congregants, inspiring us all to take higher care of our planet.

Audio system for the webinar included Autumn Lengthy, venture supervisor for the Appalachian Photo voltaic Finance Fund; Gilbert Campbell, CEO of Volt Power Utility; and Tony Setley, head pastor of St. Paul Lutheran church in Morgantown, West Virginia. My internship with Appalachian Voices was sponsored by the Sharing The Energy Basis, which was established as a part of the Volt Power Utility Environmental Justice Energy Buy Settlement.

The webinar began with a quick introduction and brief bios, adopted by an introduction to photo voltaic vitality. To introduce individuals to the science behind photo voltaic, Lengthy confirmed a Ted-Ed video titled, “How do photo voltaic panels work?” by Richard Khomp. Following the final clarification of photo voltaic vitality, Lengthy defined to attendees how photo voltaic vitality is valued. This happens by a course of generally known as internet metering.

“Web metering insurance policies permit photo voltaic homeowners to share the surplus electrical energy their photo voltaic panels produce with the native electrical energy distribution system, and require that their utility compensate them for that vitality with a 1:1 retail-rate credit score on their electrical invoice,” Lengthy mentioned. By way of internet metering, photo voltaic panel homeowners can enormously scale back the quantity of vitality they’re consuming from utility firms.

Sadly, internet metering shouldn’t be calculated the identical in each state, and the worth of internet metering credit can range relying on the place one lives.

The Federal Funding Tax Credit score is a financing mechanism provided to residential and industrial photo voltaic homeowners. Nevertheless, this tax credit score is just provided to those that pay revenue taxes, which implies nonprofits like locations of worship aren’t eligible for this profit. That is the place different monetary choices such the Appalachian Photo voltaic Finance Fund and Energy Buy Agreements are available in.

Coal-impacted counties in Appalachia which might be eligible for the Photo voltaic Finance Fund.

The Appalachian Photo voltaic Finance Fund, which is funded by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Fee’s POWER program, was created to assist non-income-tax-paying entities obtain the worth of the Federal Funding Tax Credit score. The fund gives assist in the type of grants and technical help to those such organizations. To be able to be eligible for the Appalachian Photo voltaic Finance Fund, organizations should be positioned in one of many coal-impacted counties in six Central Appalachian states (listed on the Appalachian Photo voltaic Finance Fund web site).

In the course of the webinar, attendees have been additionally supplied with a step-by-step breakdown of how the applying course of for the Photo voltaic Finance Fund works.

Following Lengthy’s presentation, Campbell launched our viewers to the work that the corporate he co-founded, Volt Power, has finished with church buildings within the D.C. space. The primary church venture that they did was on the roof of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., in 2011.

As the primary African-American church to be powered by photo voltaic, the Florida Avenue Baptist Church rapidly gained nationwide consideration. Articles have been written by publications resembling The Washington Put up, Essence Journal and Nationwide Geographic in regards to the significance of this event.

Gilbert mentioned what sparked his curiosity in serving to a traditionally African-American church swap to photo voltaic vitality was his perception in church buildings performing as resilience facilities for the communities that they serve. Not solely did his work embody putting in and managing the photo voltaic venture, however his workforce additionally assisted in instructing the church about vitality effectivity and sustainability. This schooling plan included instructing church members the way to successfully learn utility payments, in addition to instructing the youth of the church the science behind how gentle from the solar is transformed to vitality for the church to make use of.

Setley, head pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Morgantown, West Virginia, was the ultimate speaker. Setley opened by sharing the primary cause why his congregation made the choice to go photo voltaic this 12 months: As a result of a theological level of emphasis for his church is “to be involved about God’s creations.” After doing analysis into inexperienced ministry, St. Paul Lutheran Church spearheaded some initiatives to look after the Earth, together with neighborhood clean-ups and recycling. Nevertheless, they needed to do extra.

As a result of the church was constructed within the mid-20th century, it could price the church upwards of six figures to pay for main vitality effectivity updates. Going photo voltaic was a extra reasonably priced method for the church to have interaction in political and environmental motion. With assist from the Appalachian Photo voltaic Finance Fund, they have been capable of do “one thing that might have a giant payoff” in decreasing their carbon footprint, in addition to serving to them to save cash total, Setley mentioned.

The webinar concluded with a quick question-and-answer section, adopted by closing remarks from the audio system. If you need extra details about the webinar, or how your home of worship could make the swap to photo voltaic, go to solarfinancefund.org or contact Lengthy at autumn.lengthy@appvoices.org!

Watch the webinar to be taught extra about how religion communities can go photo voltaic!