Seven communities in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, in Virginia, are installing solar this summer, to boost their clean energy consumption and reduce bills.
The projects are being developed in partnership with Catholic Energies, a service of the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Catholic Climate Covenant, which was set up to help guide the US church’s response on climate change.
Catholic Energies was able to obtain the total capital costs of the seven projects from a single investor source.
Catholic Energies programme manager Dan Last said: “Nearly $3m in total installation capital costs were secured by Catholic Energies on behalf of the diocese and its parishes.
“This is one of our largest collections of projects to date.”
Father Nixon Negparanon of St. Pius X Church in Norfolk, one of the seven projects, said: “At St. Pius X it was an easy decision for us to go solar; not only do we save money, but we help answer the call from Pope Francis to care for creation.
“The children who will be sitting under the solar panels on our school roof are the ones that are going to be living with the choices that we make today. As a faith community, we witness our commitment to good stewardship of the earth when we take tangible steps to reduce our carbon footprint, both here on the St. Pius X campus, and in each of our households.”
The Richmond Diocese projects are expected to offset more than 45,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas over 25 years.
Through a power purchase agreement, the churches pay no upfront costs for solar projects.
Instead, Catholic Energies secures third-party investors who will pay for the entire solar project. In return, the investor receives tax credits, plus regular payments from the church for the solar-generated power.
The price the Catholic institution pays for the solar power is generally a discounted rate compared to the current utility power rate.