Local church goes solar

It isn't exactly pennies from heaven, though the riches sprinkling down on St. Michael's United Methodist Church these days come from the same general direction: the sun.

On Tuesday church members flipped the switch on a new, $100,000 solar energy system that's expected to cut the church's $20,000 annual electric bill in half while sending unused electricity back onto the grid.

Church council President Floyd Hamilton, who has lived in Lake Havasu City since 1969, said the church's fellowship hall on South Jamaica Boulevard was a natural for solar collectors. In fact it was designed with solar energy in mind when it was built in the mid-70s.

Hamilton remembers that because he was the owner of a solar energy company and helped plan the site, though he wasn't a church member at the time.

"We laid it out due south. That's what made this thing turn out so ideally," Hamilton said.

Changes in national energy policy and the economy made solar energy unfeasible by the early 80s, Hamilton said. But recently meaningful incentives for going solar — both from governments and utility companies — have begun to reappear.

With a 20-percent electrical rate increase looming, church members decided to start exploring solar again.

"We had talked about looking for ways we could cut our utility bills and be more prudent with the money that was donated to us," church pastor Lyndon Mason said. "When we did the numbers, it looked like we could get it paid for in about seven years."

Ever-rising energy costs are making Mason and others think the system could be paid off sooner, because the more rates go up, the more St. Michael's makes from its surplus electricity.

St. Michael's applied for a rebate through UniSource Energy Services' SunShare program. Its 14,000-watt system qualified for a $42,000 rebate.

"If it wasn't for the rebate, this project wouldn't have been feasible," Hamilton said.

The church hired local electrical contractor Esmay Electric to design and install the system. It was the company's first solar job after employees went through the training for certification in May.

"I think it's the wave of the future," owner Greg Esmay said of the company's decision to go solar after 29 years in business.

"And construction was slowing down, so we had time for other things," he said.

Esmay said the company has since sold three more systems, all for new residential construction. The typical residential system is 4,000 to 7,000 watts and costs about $8 a watt to install. Private homeowners can also qualify for SunShare rebates of $3 a watt, Esmay said, as well as state and federal tax credits.

Businesses don't get the tax credits, but they can write off the expense of a solar system over a five-year period. They generally wind up paying for it in three to four years because of value of the electricity being generated, Esmay said.

In the case of St. Michael's United Methodist Church, the fact the building is used heavily one day a week and sits empty much of rest of the time allows the church to send a lot of electricity back onto the grid.

"And they get credit for that," Esmay said. "Their meter actually runs backward at that point."

Mason said the money saved on monthly electric bills is just about equal to the payments on the loan the church got from Mohave State Bank to pay for the system. When the loan is paid off in about six years, the savings can go to other church programs, Mason said.

"We'd rather do ministry with the money than have it go for electricity. And it's good for the environment," he said.

You may contact the reporter at dparker@havasunews.com.

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