As a response to my earlier posts on solar energy (Beating the System, Grid Parity and Sun Ship) in May 2014, Lisa Therrell of Faith Lutheran Church, Leavenworth, Washington, shares this more complete story on how a committee of four brought a solar project to town. As you read this, pay attention to how the currencies of time, place, gracious leadership, relationship, truth, wellness and money flowed in the realization of this project:
Faith Lutheran Church is nestled into the beautiful Wenatchee River Valley, tucked up against the Cascade Mountains. The waters of the Wenatchee flow to the Columbia. Stair-stepped with hydroelectric dams, the region has the cheapest electricity in the country. As a result, and despite the region’s abundant sunshine, the citizenry is hesitant to invest in alternative energy such as solar systems.
Inspired by Frances Moore Lappé’s book “EcoMind; Changing the Way We Think, To Create the World We Want”, a small group from Faith Lutheran Church gathered to take on projects that would reduce our collective carbon footprint. We wanted a visible demonstration that our church and our community cares about sustainability of the earth. One member of the group, Barbara, has a 38 module solar array at her home that contributes electricity into the grid. Barbara was aware of various incentive programs for reimbursing alternative energy investors, and advocated for taking on a Community Solar Project.
The idea was audacious. Washington State offers a cost recovery program for installing solar systems on public properties. A non-profit entity can be the project administrator and receives annual cost recovery payments which are disaggregated back out to investors. The prospect of organizing and pulling off such a big project was daunting, but Barbara steered us to a consultant, Ellen Lamiman of Energy Solutions who knew the ropes.
We think we can, we think we can.
We first embarked on a feasibility phase. Ellen worked with our local solar installer to get cost estimates. From this she built a budget, and determined that with about $8,000 in donations and $96,000 in investments, we could build a 72 module system on our local middle school. The school has a near perfect solar aspect. There was one hitch in our get-along. We had to raise all the money in a few weeks in order to get the solar components ordered, manufactured, and installed by the end of June. Without that our investors would not realize a full return on their investment, as the state program is sunsetting. It was late March.
Two of us agreed to see the project through under Ellen’s advisement. Neither of us are solar experts, nor are we professional fund-raisers. But we were cheered on by numerous friends. John reminded us that many of the good humanitarian causes have come to Leavenworth and been adopted by the community found their start at Faith Lutheran. A third person joined us to be the book-keeper, lightening the load. We think we can, we think we can.
Puff, puff. Chug, chug. Not only did we need to raise over $100,000 to get to the top of the mountain and down the other side, but we also had to carefully communicate with several minor and major skeptics. The first skeptic voice was familiar—“With clean hydropower so cheap, why go solar?” Coal-fired plants are the number one contributor to carbon emissions in the United States (vehicular traffic is second). Our local public utility district sells its excess electricity to locations that might otherwise purchase power from coal-fired plants. The energy saved by our proposed system would be the equivalent of the use of two households. The state program is designed to benefit local solar manufacturing and installation businesses. As demand for solar products goes up, the cost is coming down. We wanted to be part of a snowballing momentum for advancing alternative energy in our community and state.
The second skeptic voice was a faith-based protest. “The Community Solar Project is self-serving. The job of the church is to preach the gospel.” While we didn’t disagree with the latter premise, we strove to articulate ourselves better regarding the first premise. For me personally, care of creation is at the very roots of who I am as a person of faith. In the creation story, God created a world that is very good. God created the sun to rule the earth by day, and the moon by night. The sun is a gift of untapped limitless energy that we can use without depleting the source. God instructed Adam and Eve, and we stand in as their proxy, to tend the garden. Humankind is going two steps backwards for every one step forwards in terms of creating a sustainable planetary lifestyle. As persons of faith, we wanted to step forward. We are all called to serve, and having different gifts for that service, we felt led to honor God in this manner. Puff, puff. Chug, chug. We began the climb up the mountain. We think we can. We think we can.
We didn’t know who our investors and donors would be. So we cast the net wide to the community with press releases, a radio interview, and a public meeting. Four households and the church agreed to underwrite the project by contributing $1,000 or more. Within four days of asking, we had all the donations we needed. Between the public meeting, the Earth Day Fair booth, and our other outreach efforts we had the 27 investors we needed lined up within the next 10 days. An amazing thing happened. There was strong enough interest that we were able to fund a 96 module system rather than the 72 module system initially proposed. And the project backers also include many who didn’t invest financially, but cheered from the sidelines. Hurray, hurray! We thought we could, we thought we could.
Now we are on the home stretch puffing our way down the mountain. The system is installed on the middle school and putting an estimated 22,000 kilowatts per year into the energy grid. We had some thumps and bumps with this being the first Community Solar Project in Chelan County. But once we have our monitoring data available on-line we will have arrived at the station. We are hopeful that the Washington State Legislature will extend this program next session to keep it a viable option. And if they do, we may roll up our sleeves and try for round two. We thought we could, we thought we could.
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Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: September 3-4, 2014 November 16-20, 2014 March 19-14, 2015 April 21-25, 2015 July 20-25, 2015 Register at: www.kscopeinstitute.org |
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Reflection Questions for Proper 17 (Year A) Exodus 3:1-15 Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26 Jeremiah 15:15-21 Psalm 26:1-8 Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28 |
Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org