Field of beams
Moved by pope's message, group to install 5,000 solar panels in D.C.
WASHINGTON — Right now, it's a large, empty field.
But by next year, the 5-acre plot in the District of Columbia will sprout about 5,000 solar panels, the largest ground array the nation's capital has seen — a change wrought by local Catholic groups.
Catholic Energies, a nonprofit organization that helps churches across the country switch to solar energy, partnered with the field's owner, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, to build a system sufficient to keep the lights on in 260 homes for one year. The power produced will go back into the D.C. grid, earning Catholic Charities enough energy credits to offset the electricity costs of 12 of its properties across the city.
“I'm just really excited that we've been able to do something that I really believe is the right thing to do for the planet,” said Mary Jane Morrow, the CFO of Catholic Charities, a faith-based social services agency.
It is the second energy-saving project Catholic Energies has undertaken in the region to date. The group finished an installation of 440 solar panels on the roof of a Virginia church last month.
The solar panels, set for completion in early 2020, will cost several million dollars, said Page Gravely, the executive vice president for client services at Catholic Energies. But Catholic Charities will not pay a cent.
That's how Catholic Energies works. It negotiates a deal between its client — typically a Catholic church or high school — and an investor, most often a renewable-energy company. The investor agrees to pay a third-party contractor to install a solar system in return for a 30 percent federal tax credit, as well as financial incentives that vary by state.
Catholic Energies then takes a small (less than the industry standard of 15 percent) developer's fee, enough to fund its five-person operation based in D.C. on a break-even basis. The group accepts a lower rate because it wants to fund “as many projects as possible,” said Dan Last, the chief operating officer of Catholic Energies.
Washington is particularly friendly to solar: Its solar credits, worth about $400 each, make it “the hottest solar market” in the United States, Last said. Massachusetts offers the next-highest price at about $300 a credit.
That's a boon for IGS Solar, the energy company funding the installation in D.C. And Catholic Charities also stands to gain. The solar system will save the agency several hundred thousand dollars per year, Last said.
But the fiscal benefits are not the entire point, Morrow said. She cited “Laudato Si,” a 192-page paper Pope Francis released in 2015 that argues for a partnership between science and religion to combat humancaused climate change.
In the document, whose title translates to “Be Praised,” Francis demanded an “ecological conversion” for faithful Catholics, exhorting them to embrace recycling, tree planting and carpooling.
Catching on
Catholic Energies formed three years ago — inspired, in part, by the pope's 2015 paper. The group is a subprogram of the nonprofit Catholic Climate Covenant, a national initiative launched in 2006 that seeks to educate and engage U.S. Catholics in caring for the environment.
Dan Misleh, the founder and executive director of Catholic Climate Covenant, said Francis' arguments were a “driving force” behind Catholic Energies, which he said compels churches to think about the environment by showing them how much money they can save through “smart” energy.
Misleh said Catholic Energies is not alone in heeding Francis' call. He pointed to dioceses across the country, including in Atlanta and San Diego, that are working to switch their parishes and schools to solar power. But Catholic Energies is the only program he knows of that allows Catholic institutions to do so free of charge, he said.
The idea is catching on. The organization has about 25 projects in the pipeline, in eight states, representing between $12 and $15 million in construction, Last said.
A major milestone came in mid-June, when the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Hampton, Virginia, became the first church to finish a project with Catholic Energies. Its new $350,000 solar system, funded by investor Red Lion Renewables, will meet 100 percent of the parish's electricity needs, saving it 14 percent on its monthly electricity bill. It also will prevent the release of about 230 tons of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to emissions from 25 homes.