Home - Santa Fe Real Estate Guide
San Miguel Chapel to be solar-powered
THE IDEA OF SOLAR PANELS POPPING UP ON ROOFTOPS in Santa Fe’s historic district is horrifying to the defenders of the historic-preservation faith. It’s definitely a challenge for building owners who want to reduce their electricity bills and their carbon footprints. The problem is hiding the photovoltaic panels.
St. Michael’s High School, which owns San Miguel Chapel, is working with the Santa Fe nonprofit Cornerstones Community Partnerships on just that. The plan is to install an almost-flat solar array on the chapel roof.
“Behind that belltower is the nave roof and it has parapets,” said Cornerstones director Jake Barrow. “We went up there and set up sawhorses and lines, then we looked up from down by Loretto Chapel. The only place you could see something higher is around the intersection of Old Santa Fe Trail and Alameda Street, but the panels will be below that parapet. If you were up at the Cross of the Martyrs with binoculars, you could probably see something, but you probably couldn’t tell what it was because they lie so flat.”
The proponents are looking at a system from the Albuquerque company Unirac. It’s called a “flat ladder” arrangement, but it looks more like a flattened accordion. The array will be ballasted, so there will be no perforations in the roof. The tops of the panels will be a little less than 11 inches up from the roof surface, Barrow said.
Cornerstones worked with engineer Mars DeLapp to make sure such a low-angled array would get enough solar exposure to make the project feasible. “The panels will be facing east and west,” Barrow said. “During the longer season, from March through October, this thing’s getting a lot of energy and in the winter not so much, but there’s a compensation.”
Excess electricity generated during the summerwill build up a credit with PNMto offset wintertime usage.
“What we’re trying to do here is make a statement that this is possible in downtown Santa Fe. Solar is a new thing for us at Cornerstones, but the way we feel about it is that in New Mexico the train has left the station and we’re gettin’ on board. We want to be proactive but do it in such a way that it’s not going to impact the historic scene.”
San Miguel Chapel is considered to be the the oldest church in the United States. It was originally built between 1610 and 1628, but most of what we see today dates to a 1710 rebuilding after it was damaged during the Pueblo Revolt, and to a 1955 remodel.
Barrowsaid the project is supported by part-time Santa Fe resident Richard Moe, who was formerly the director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Dick believes this will have national significance.