Solar panels on religious buildings save money — and inspire congregants to give green energy a try
Solar panels on religious buildings save money — and inspire congregants to give green energy a try
The Inflation Reduction Act includes money to help homeowners, businesses and nonprofits make their buildings more climate-friendly.
And since the IRA passed, a surprising group is really punching above its weight in the solar adoption game.
Houses of worship are three times more likely to adorn their roofs with panels than the average non-residential building, according to the Department of Energy.
The impact of those panels is way bigger than the solar power they generate.
“Whatever space we had, they put panels,” said Art Mercado, director of facilities at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles. “I think the goal was be environmentally green, cost-effective, and obviously, in the long run, have more money for the school, the temple and everything else.”
Just about every sun-bathed surface of the synagogue and the gymnasium of its school next door is covered in panels. They’re designed to supply about half of the power used on this campus, which should cut its $8,000 monthly power bill in half.
Temple Beth Am is part of a solar trend that Daniel McIntyre sees as a business opportunity. He runs a company called Tenco Solar that installs panels.
“We had never done a job with a nonprofit prior to the inflation Reduction Act being passed,” McIntyre said.
Since then, he’s done four churches, a Sikh temple and an Islamic center. He said solar is catching on in part because the Internal Revenue Service gives money directly to nonprofits to make climate-friendly changes to their buildings.
“Instead of taking it as a deduction on your tax return, you actually receive that back in the form of a check from the Department of Treasury,” he said.
So, Temple Beth Am had a financial incentive from the Inflation Reduction Act, an environmental incentive, and a moral incentive, too.
“In Judaism, there’s this whole concept of repairing the world, and there’s a responsibility to the world,” said the temple’s former president Mark Samuel.
Samuel said the community has gotten rid of styrofoam cups and started composting at the school. That has inspired kids to ask their parents about composting at home. He called the composting program and the solar panels “appetizers” for families to explore how they can help the planet too. Now, congregants are asking him about the panels.
“I get phone calls about it. ‘How’d you do it? What are you doing? Is it difficult? Is it worth it? Does it really work?'” Samuel said.
That is the part that is most exciting to Environmental Economics professor Kenneth Gillingham at Yale. He said the environmental effect of Beth Am’s solar panels extends far beyond the temple’s own energy use.
“How many solar adoptions there are around you is one of the most impactful factors that influence whether you install solar,” he said.
The idea is called social contagion. Gillingham co-wrote a study about it that said solar panels tend to cluster in neighborhoods. They’re like quiet, working ads for themselves.
“You’re more likely to actually talk to your close neighbor, find out the financials for the system, find out that they’re seeing the solar panels as a good deal,” he said.
A community center like Temple Beth Am, where 1,000 families come to learn and shape their beliefs on what’s right and wrong, magnifies that effect.
“If your church or temple has a very large congregation, then you may actually reach many people you wouldn’t have reached otherwise,” Gillingham said.
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