Solar Maintenance Fund Drive: Help us Continue to Harness the Sun’s Energy!

by Molly O'Donnell, Green Sanctuary Task Force

We need your help to continue to generate peak energy from our solar panels! It has been over ten years since we had 96 solar panels installed on the Meeting Room and Fellowship Hall roofs. And it’s been six years since we added 54 more panels on the RE wing, increasing our capacity by 67% to 40.2 kilowatts.

Unfortunately, after years of smooth operation, we are now running into maintenance issues that recently cut off energy from nearly half of our panels.

Over a hundred UUCB members and friends generously donated funds to purchase our panels, and we are hoping that same spirit will inspire donations to help fund their ongoing maintenance!

To donate to our solar maintenance fund, please go to the following link:

uucb.churchcenter.com/giving/to/solar-maintenance

Or you could write a check to the church with the memo "Solar Maintenance Fund"

Our Solar Energy Savings

Since the first arrays were connected in 2013 our solar generation has saved the church over $47,000: over $22,000 in credit on our electric bills from energy sent to the electric grid, and over $25,000 that it would have cost to purchase the energy that we used directly from our solar panels. The credit from energy sent to the grid was more than our total Duke Energy bills during this time.

Our renewable energy is part of the reason our church has been in the mid- to upper-90 th percentile in the EPA’s Energy Star ® for buildings of worship since 2015. To take advantage of our solar energy as we work toward our goal of zero carbon emissions, we have converted two of our nine heating/cooling systems from natural gas to efficient electric heat pumps.