By Rob Hogg
Earlier this summer, Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, completed construction and began operation of a 45-kilowatt solar-power system that is expected to provide 100% of the electricity used by the church.
By reducing our dependence on the local electric utility, which is still generating electricity from coal and natural gas, the project is expected to reduce pollution by 40 tons of carbon dioxide each year. That is the pollution-reduction equivalent of avoiding the use of 4,000 gallons of gasoline each year.
As Irene DeMaris, executive director of Iowa Interfaith Power & Light, said at a June 27 ceremony to celebrate the project, “This is what loving your neighbor looks like.”
In addition to the pollution reduction benefits of using solar power, this project is expected to save the church approximately $10,000 a year in electricity costs. At a cost of roughly $140,000, the system will pay for itself in 14 years and then provide free electricity.
The church has so far been able to raise about $30,000 in charitable contributions, which will reduce the payoff period by three years. When the church applies for “direct pay” benefits from the Internal Revenue Service under the Inflation Reduction Act, it expects to receive $42,000, further reducing the payoff period to less than seven years.
The church was in a position to finance the project by “borrowing from itself,” i.e., using funds it had in reserve that were not legally restricted to other uses.
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022—and a program about solar power for nonprofits at a local eco-spirituality center (Prairiewoods)—prompted the church’s vestry to authorize a committee to study solar power in May 2023.
The committee got bids from two vendors (both members of the Iowa Solar Energy Trade Association) and explored investing in “community solar” through the local electric utility. All options were attractive financially. In September 2023, the vestry chose a vendor (Ideal Energy) that proposed ground-mount solar panels where the church had been gardening for Feed Iowa First, a local nonprofit that grows vegetables for people in the community facing food insecurity.
Ideal Energy also proposed an elevated design and offered to build a fence to facilitate gardening under and next to the solar panels. (The company also agreed to move large rocks, or “glacial erratics,” that were on the site from a prior church construction project.)
Construction began on March 11, 2024, and was finished less than three months later. While it was too late to plant a full vegetable garden for this season, the church’s solar committee planted pumpkins, which the church hopes to give away at our annual “trunk or treat” event in the church parking lot in October.
Operation of the solar panels began after approval of the installation by the local electric utility.
Rooftop solar was not feasible at this time because of the age and expected life of the roof. When the roof is replaced, however, it would be wise for the church to add more solar power and replace its natural gas furnaces with electric heat pumps. In the future, the church can also consider adding battery storage to become a neighborhood resiliency hub during future disasters.
One advantage for this solar power project is “net metering” available to the church under Iowa law. Not every state has net metering, but it is an important incentive for solar power in Iowa.
Net metering means that the church will remain connected to the electric utility and can supply the utility with excess power when the solar panels are producing more than the church consumes. This is done at the same rate that the church pays for electricity it receives from the utility when the church consumes more than it produces.
Solar power works and is an attractive way to provide clean, abundant renewable energy for the church and the community. Christ Episcopal Church is willing to share information with other Episcopal churches considering solar power as an option.
Rob Hogg is chair of the Christ Episcopal Church solar power committee and was serving as junior warden of the vestry at the time the project was authorized. He is a retired state senator. You can contact him at (319) 247-0223 or at senatorrobhogg@gmail.com.