zNewsletter Sunday

Seeking a Higher Power: Grace Lutheran Church Aims To Go Fully Solar

Niamh Coomey

BETHLEHEM -- In an effort to cut energy costs and be a good steward of the environment, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church is transitioning to being fully solar-powered.

Protecting the environment is a strong value for members of Grace Lutheran, who often pray for the earth during Sunday morning services, said church financial chairman Lutz Albrecht.

"That's why we did it, because a lot of people felt it was the right thing to do," Albrecht said. "This is us kind of putting our money where our mouth is."

Church leadership overwhelmingly supported the project, with only a couple people out of 60 voting against it. Local companies Tri-State Solar Engineering and Scherrer Engineering and Construction took on the installation work, which was completed at the end of last year.

"It's a long process but it all worked out well; they did a great job for us, no issues," Albrecht said. "We're to a point now if the sun shines enough in, say, March, April, May, we expect not to have an electric bill."

Once the newly installed panels go through a full solar cycle, they will be able to fulfill the church's electrical needs, which previously cost $800 to $900 monthly.

Because Grace Lutheran is a nonprofit, it was able to take advantage of a provision in the Biden-era federal Inflation Reduction Act, which allowed for 30% of the cost to be offset.

"It established some really good incentives to do solar for nonprofits," Eugene Scherrer of Scherrer Engineering and Construction said.

Another 10% was able to be taken off as an Energy Community Grant from a provision that former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., added to the bill.

This spelled a $54,000 cash rebate that went toward the installation of the panels, which cost $135,000. It will take the church less than seven years to pay off the project, an undertaking that usually takes closer to 10 years.

Scherrer installed solar panels at his own home around 2010 and generates around 90% of his energy that way. Since working on his own house, he has taken on more than 150 solar projects in the area.

The church also partakes in a net-metering tariff, which compensates them for the energy they produce with their solar panels, greatly reducing utility costs. When the church generates more energy than they consume, this will become a credit towards the next month.

Generating their own power also insulates the church from increasing utility costs, Scherrer said. He emphasized these economic benefits to going solar - particularly for nonprofits.

"We're just trying to make people aware of the economics of solar energy. Churches are definitely a viable candidate, but also other nonprofits," he said.

Since the installation, another local church has reached out to Grace Lutheran interested in the prospect of going solar, Albrecht said. He said he hopes the project might encourage locals to join the church - and inspire others to follow suit.

"We talked about the fact that if we did it, it might show the community and potential visitors that this is a progressive church that's doing the right thing and might encourage them to join us," he said.