Good stewards
A Sundance Power Systems crew works to install 272 solar panels atop the Diocesan Pastoral Center on South Church Street in Charlotte Nov. 18. (Photos by SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald)CHARLOTTE — Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” continues to inspire parishes and schools in the Diocese of Charlotte to take action, as energy-saving solar panel arrays go up in November and December on the roofs of two of its buildings in Charlotte.
“Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” is the appeal from Pope Francis addressed to “every person living on this planet” for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our world. The pope calls the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to embark on a new path of awareness and action.
The Diocese of Charlotte is taking the pope’s words to heart.
“In an effort to follow the lead of Pope Francis, we are seeing parishes and schools across the diocese respond to the pope’s plea to be good stewards of our planet and our resources,” says Anthony Morlando, diocesan director of properties and risk management. The latest efforts involve installing rooftop solar panel arrays to save a significant amount on energy costs.
It all started in 2015 with St. Eugene Church in Asheville. The church installed a 46-kilowatt solar panel array on the roof, aiming to cover nearly 20 percent of the church’s annual energy usage. Inspired by St. Eugene’s effort, St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte and the Diocese of Charlotte Properties Office began investigating the benefits of solar power – and they saw that the time is right to take the next step, working with Duke Energy to explore its solar rebate program for non-profits.
The N.C. Utilities Commission has mandated that Duke Energy must increase the amount of sustainably generated power within its service area, and solar rebates have made solar initiatives more affordable, putting them within reach for smaller companies and non-profit organizations.
“In an effort to lead by example, we began looking into the possibility of placing a 100-kilowatt solar array on the roof of the Diocesan Pastoral Center,” Morlando says. “Shortly after beginning our efforts, St. Gabriel Church contacted us requesting to meet to discuss their wish to install a 230-kilowatt array on the roof of St. Gabriel Parish Center/School. Working together, we sent out a request for proposals to several North Carolina-based solar installers for each project, and after a thorough vetting, selected Sundance Power Systems for the install.”
On Nov. 1, a crew from Sundance Power Systems began installing 272 solar panels on the roof of the Pastoral Center and expect to finish the work in the next two weeks. The solar panels are projected to cut the building’s energy costs by 20 percent.
The $150,000 solar panel project at the Pastoral Center was funded in part through a $75,000 Duke Energy grant, and diocesan leaders expect the panels to pay for themselves within eight years. The panels have a 25-year lifespan before they will need to be replaced.
Diocesan properties manager Randy Gettys is spearheading the project at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.
“I think that alternative energy is the future, but before promoting the program further to others, we’re implementing these current projects to accurately vet the success of proposed results of energy savings,” Gettys explains.
Gettys envisions the diocese having alternative energy set-ups all across western North Carolina within the next decade.
Alternative energy isn’t just better environmental stewardship; it’s good stewardship in general, Morlando and others say. The savings on a parish’s or school’s energy bills is “opportunity revenue.”
“There’s plenty of opportunity revenue,” Gettys notes. “To use that opportunity revenue to feed the poor and to do the outreach that the Church is really good at – to be able to embrace modern technology to do more of what we already do – is just exciting,” he says.
After completing the installation at the Pastoral Center, Sundance Power Systems will start installing solar panels over at St. Gabriel Parish Center/School in Charlotte – with 622 solar panels going up on the roof starting Dec. 9. Weather permitting, the work should take about eight weeks.
St. Gabriel Parish leaders have been eying a solar energy set-up for about five years, says Chris Brown, a parish finance council member who is working on the project. The work has been inspired through the parish’s “Pope Francis Initiative,” begun by recently retired pastor Father Frank O’Rourke. It is the parish’s response to Laudato Si’ and Pope Francis’ appeal to assist the poor and be more mindful of using the earth’s resources. But timing and costs just weren’t working out until about two years ago, Brown says.
“First, Pope Francis made a clear call for all of us to have a renewed discussion about the impact of humanity on the environment. Second, the school roof reached the end of its useful life and solar technology has advanced. Finally, the finances make sense. We are receiving a $75,000 solar rebate from Duke Energy and we were able to partner with the diocese to negotiate lower costs,” he says.
The Charlotte parish will make a net investment of approximately $238,000 after savings and incentives, Brown says. “Going forward, we will buy significantly less power from Duke Energy while having a positive impact on the environment.”
“The payback period is less than 10 years. Over the 25-year life of the installation, we will have created significant financial savings that will allow us to devote funding to other parish priorities,” he adds.
St. Gabriel parishioner Walter Putnam, a former student at St. Gabriel School who is now the senior vice president of real estate with Geenex Solar in Charlotte, worked closely with diocesan leaders to provide technical expertise on the solar panel projects for both the Pastoral Center and the school.
“I witnessed the 2008 stock market crash from a seat in the front row of a finance course at Appalachian State,” Putnam says. “The following semester, I changed my major to study renewable energy. There are many problems and injustices in our world, and I decided to focus my attention on making a difference in the energy sector.”
For the past seven years, Putnam has worked with a developer that builds large solar farms along the East Coast, and says he has “always wanted to bring this reliable, cost-effective technology back home.”
“Timing lined up just right, and a small group of us dug into the details,” Putnam explains. “The deeper we dug, the stronger the financials became, and the project really gained broad-based support and momentum.”
Putnam says he really enjoyed putting his experience and passion to work on a project that will have such a beneficial impact for the local Church.
“What made the difference here is a small group of us donating our time and talent to a worthy cause that we felt strongly about. There are opportunities every day to make the world a better place, and any one of us can do just that,” he says.
St. Gabriel Parish building committee member Tim Dixon, who serves as the parish’s project manager, says the solar panels are projected to produce approximately 345,000 kilowatt-hours per year – about 40 percent of the parish center/elementary school’s annual energy consumption. The parish anticipates saving $25,000 a year on its energy costs.
“This PFI solar project is a win-win, allowing us to care for our common home, per Laudato Si’, conserving our natural resources and saving money,” Dixon says. “We were encouraged by the St. Eugene Parish project and hope our project will encourage other parishes as well.”
Morlando concurs. “We should be proud of all the things we do every day to care for our common home, to be good stewards of our planet and our resources,” he says. “My hope is that these solar projects here at the Diocesan Pastoral Center and at St. Gabriel Parish and School will further illustrate the growing diocesan support for these types of green projects across the diocese.”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
‘Care for Our Common Home’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pope Francis’ long-anticipated encyclical on human ecology was released June 18, 2015. Divided into six chapters, “Laudato Si’ (“Praise Be to You”), on Care for Our Common Home,” is a rich exploration of the interconnectedness that exists among God, humanity and creation and it details all the blessings and challenges brought on by such intimate relationships. For Pope Francis, penning the encyclical was “both joyful and troubling.” It was also intensely personal, resulting in a direct plea from the Holy Father to all people for conversion of heart and for action.
“I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet,” Pope Francis writes. “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”
As one of the seven tenets of Catholic social teaching, the importance of caring for creation is hardly groundbreaking in terms of Church doctrine. Pope Francis liberally quotes St. John XXIII, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. He also relies on the insights of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Benedict, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. John of the Cross and even Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
What Pope Francis does do that is unique, however, is delve into the complexity and interconnectedness of what he calls an “integral ecology” in a way that is meant to spur the reader to thoughtful reflection and personal action. While such connections bring to mind the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ and John the Evangelist’s imagery of the “vine and the branches,” Pope Francis takes them a step further, directly linking human, economic, political, technological and spiritual activity to environmental and social responsibility.
It’s a lesson critical to all of us and to our future. As the Holy Father highlights, the great temptation of the world today is to remain isolated from one another, whether it be from the unborn child in the womb or from the suffering of third-world migrants.
In many ways, “Laudato Si’” is quintessential Pope Francis, bringing a global perspective to an issue on which many Catholics, particularly those in the West, tend to look through a more narrowed lens.
Just as the Apostle Paul challenged the early Church to travel to the corners of the world, so Pope Francis is asking us to think beyond our own immediate wants and needs, our own comforts and self-interest to the needs of others.
That’s the beauty of “Laudato Si’”: Pope Francis, in countering our self-centeredness and individual-ism, is calling us to a better version of ourselves – and to holiness.
How a Solar Photovoltaic System Works
Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels use a special material to convert the energy from the sun into electricity to power your home or business. Solar panels have no moving parts, which makes them extremely reliable. PV systems installed almost 50 years ago are still generating electricity, and improvements in technology have made solar photovoltaics more reliable than ever.
— Catholic News Service
It Starts with Light Sensitive Cells
PV systems use a semiconductor material (similar to that used in computer microprocessors and memory chips) that is manufactured into photovoltaic cells. Each cell is sensitive to light and produces electricity directly in its presence.
Cells Make Up Photovoltaic Solar Panels
Cells are assembled into PV panels. The type of cell used and the total number of cells per panel determine the overall panel’s rated power output. The total amount of energy used to mine, transport, process and manufacture a functional PV panel from its raw materials is recovered in the first two years of its operation, and thus solar photovoltaics are a sustainable energy technology.
Solar Panels Make Up Solar Arrays
Finally, PV panels are configured into an array of one or more panels. The actual size of your array will be based on your energy needs, objectives and budget. Typical residential arrays may consist of a dozen or so panels, while commercial, industrial and utility-scale arrays may be comprised of hundreds or even thousands of panels. Arrays may be ground or roof-mounted, and are highly scalable. Additional panels and production capacity may be added at any time.
Your Solar Array is Connected to the Grid or Your Site
Power from the PV array is routed to the ‘balance of system’ components that condition the electricity for connection to your utility, or for use on your site. If your system is ‘off-grid’ or ‘grid-tied with back-up,’ additional components including batteries and charge controllers will also be designed into your system.
— Sundance Power Systems