Let there Be Light: Local Church Benefits from Solar

Candler --  Local residents joined leaders from Hominy Baptist Church and the nonprofit environmental group Environment North Carolina for an informative tour of the church's rooftop solar installation.

The tour was held to educate Candler and Asheville residents about the benefits of solar energy and how they can go solar.

"Houses of worship often are great candidates for rooftop solar panels," said Emily Mason, advocate for Environment North Carolina. "Faith communities that get their energy from the sun care for the earth, save money, and provide an energy resilient center for their communities during power outages due to creating their own power right from on high." 

After meeting with other churches to learn about the process of going solar, Hominy Baptist Church installed its panels in 2014 to lessen its environmental footprint and care for the Earth. Installed by solar contractor CM Wilson, the solar array is housed atop the Ferguson Family Life Center adjacent to the church and funded by the Ferguson family, who are members of the church.

"We value the impact on school children and other neighbors who see the panels and know that Hominy cares about the environment, other churches in our community who are exploring their own solar options, and the constant reminder to our congregation of our responsibility in being good stewards of God's gifts to us," said Hominy Baptist Church Co-Pastor Paul Raybon.

Solar energy is abundant, efficient and increasingly affordable, and houses of worship often are great candidates for rooftop solar panels. While people may frequent these buildings less during the week, their panels will still generate power that churches can sell back to utility companies. 

Solar panels also increase a community's energy resilience during extreme weather events. Solar panels paired with batteries can be independent from the grid, meaning the lights stay on during power outages – and while they are not a requirement for installing solar, energy storage is a quality especially critical for houses of worship that provide shelter during emergencies.

"Electricity demand is projected to skyrocket over the next five years and beyond, and with it will come much larger rate hikes for customers who will have to pay for this expansion of our electric grid," said Jonathan Crawford, a solar consultant at 8MSolar. "Solar installations, such as the one we toured at Hominy Baptist Church, are an effective way for churches, businesses and individuals to generate their own energy and control its costs. Lowering a bill with renewable energy is great, but locking in the cost of that energy for the next 30 years is truly legacy-building."

In addition to reducing the environmental impacts of its energy usage, Hominy Baptist's solar array delivers significant savings on its monthly electric bill. In 2024, Hominy assumed ownership of the system and switched to net metering, reducing their monthly billed energy usage by 28%. Other religious institutions that want to follow suit have the added incentive of solar energy rebates that can dramatically lower the price tag for their congregations to go solar. Although these rebates are currently being debated in congress, they are still available to apply for.

"As congress debates whether or not to keep federal rebates in place for clean energy, we are reminded by houses of worship such as Hominy Baptist that these solar installations are a benefit not just to their congregations, but to their communities,"said Mason. "We urge Senator Tillis to protect incentives for clean energy to help build stronger and more resilient communities in our state. We should be making it easier for houses of worship to go solar, not harder."

Environment North Carolina is holding similar events throughout the state to help spread the word about the benefits of going solar so that more houses of worship, nonprofits, businesses and individuals can invest in a clean energy future too. 

Image: WNCTimes