EJC Voices

Temple Emanuel
1129 Jefferson Road, Greensboro, NC 27410
Contact: Gary Silverstein, gsilverstein@triad.rr.com

Temple Emanuel, Greensboro dedicated their 5 kW solar system on October 16, 2011 at their Jewish Festival.  Temple Emanuel has had a very active Teva Committee for many years. Teva is the Hebrew word for nature. The Teva Committee worked for several years shepherding the solar project through the congregational administrative structure, culminating in unanimous approval by their Board of Trustees. Both Rabbis Fred Guttman and Andy Koren were fully supportive.  Each donor receives a proportional share of the tax credit on their North Carolina return, depending on the size of their donation to the total cost of the project. They were also able to take a deduction on their federal return for their charitable contribution. Teva committee members estimate that donors received about 40-50% of their donations back in the form of these credits and deductions.

The congregation came to the table in an amazing fashion, with 58 families donating to the project. Donations ranged from $10 to $3000, allowing people of all income levels to share in the sense of ownership. The solar system has a direct tie to Duke Energy, and sells all of its electricity to Duke and the Renewable Energy Credits to NC Greenpower, thus reducing their gross expenditures on electricity. The project costs about $25,000, but again this expense was absorbed by the donors, not the congregation, and Teva committee members estimate that after taxes, the project probably costs about $13,000.

Within the first year of operation, the array brought in the congregation $1,200. Teva members point out that the congregation “made all of the money back for the congregation on the first day that we started generating electricity—because the congregation did not directly invest any funds in the project.”

As the members of Teva remind us, it is important to understand that “this project cost Temple Emanuel $0.” 

Myers Park Baptist Church
1900 Queens Rd  Charlotte, NC 28207
Contact: Kate Green, greenkat1@bellsouth.net

Myers Park Baptist Church, Charlotte dedicated their 5 kW system on October 2, 2011 in a ceremony after worship services. A church Energy Committee, created at the request of their Earthkeepers Group learned about a matching grant using federal stimulus funds that was administered through the State Energy Office and applied for the funds in the fall of 2009.

In order to make their grant application more attractive to the state, the church proposed putting a display in their Learning Center that tells people about energy and carbon savings generated by the solar system. They also proposed conducting quarterly classes on energy related topics in their Learning Center. The Committee simultaneously began the process of educating their faith community about the value of solar and moving the process through the proper administrative channels at the Church.

The grant was awarded early in 2011, and the Earthkeepers had no difficulty in raising the matching funds, although the project was scaled down in size due to the economic downturn. The solar system was installed in August 2011, and has been producing clean energy from the sun since then. The system was placed on the Learning Center, and is supplying electricity directly to the Church through a behind the meter installation, thus saving directly on energy costs. The donors will receive a proportional share of their donation as a tax credit on their North Carolina tax returns and a take the donation as a contribution on their federal tax return.

First Congregational United Church of Christ, Asheville
20 Oak St.,  Asheville, NC 28801
Contact: Pastor Joe Hoffman, revjoehof@uccasheville.org

First Congregational United Church of Christ, Asheville is the first congregation in North Carolina to use this model. They dedicated their 10KW solar system at a Solarbration on April 3, 2011. It was featured in a news story in the Asheville Citizen-Times, Asheville Church Puts Faith in Solar Power. The project was developed by the Earth Team with the full support of Pastor Joe Hoffman, who had been promoting the idea for several years.

Members of the Earth Team, members of the church, and some interested outside parties formed a Limited Liability Corporation, First Solar LLC, to finance the project. First Solar LLC leased roof space from the church, and all of the electricity is being sold to Progress Energy. First Solar also is selling their Renewable Energy Tax Credits to North Carolina Green Power. At the end of 6 years, First Solar plans to donate the system to the church. Although the Church does not benefit financially directly from the solar array, other than the lease payment, during this time period, after the solar panels are donated, they will have full financial benefit for the life of system from that time forward.

A reflection from Pastor Joe Hoffman on the project:

Our approach was to invite investors to purchase a share – which was valued at $5000, and thus each investor became a partner in the LLC. We ended up with 9 investors, some who bought more than 1 share, and a couple who split a share with another person.

The rest of the congregation was then invited to donate to a solar fund so that we might have money to purchase the panels from the LLC in 5-6 years – according to what the financial model indicated. Those persons would write a check to the church, it could be any amount, and would receive a notice from the church of this tax free contribution. In this way, everyone still gets to be a contributor, and the original investors do not face a possible small loss of their investment when it is time to sell the panels to the church. (The church does not want our original investors to lose money – they could have earned money on that investment in some other kind of investment on the market – but they chose to invest socially, and we want to honor that.)

So far, the church has had no costs associated with the solar panels. And yet, we have gotten free great publicity in the press, we have used the results of our panels for educational purposes to inform people of why this is important, etc. It has been a win/win. We are considering doing the same kind of LLC for a different kind of green energy project in our church because this process has worked so well with the solar panels.