OCEAN CITY – A local church is going green in an effort to promote sustainability with the installation of solar panels.
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church of Ocean City has partnered with Paradise Energy Solutions and Sunstream Energy to bring a 105-kilowatt solar array to the church.
“Caring for God’s creation means wanting to provide a sustainable source of our power needs,” said Larry Ryan, a member of the church council and its property committee.
Ryan explained that the solar panels would be installed on the roof over the church’s social hall, retreat center and meeting rooms.
“We have a lot of south-facing roof space,” he said.
Ryan said Paradise Energy was essentially leasing that roof space from the church and would install the solar panels there.
“They own the equipment,” he said.
The company will install and maintain the solar system. The church will buy electricity from the company through a power purchase agreement. While the church would not have been able to afford purchasing its own solar panels—the system being installed costs about $354,000—the leasing option, Ryan explained, made the project possible.
The system is expected to produce 77,259 kilowatt hours its first year and is estimated to save the church $190,000 over the next 25 years.
Ryan says the cost savings aren’t the only reason the congregation opted to go green. Parishioners at St. Peter’s, he said, want to do what they can to help the environment. Although the solar system will be the most noticeable of their efforts, church members have also installed all LED lighting and maintain a compost pile, among other things.
“We’re interested in being good stewards of the planet so we can hand our children the same opportunities we’ve had,” Ryan said.
He said the solar panels would not contribute to carbon pollution and would be a benefit to the atmosphere. He pointed out that coal was abundant now but would not be a feasible power source forever and that alternative energy sources would be critical in the future.
“We’re using the same resource that’s available to everyone — the sun,” Ryan said.
St. Peter’s is not the first church to work with Paradise Energy. The company worked with Nelson Memorial United Methodist Church in Hebron two years ago to install solar panels and is currently working with St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Salisbury, according to Jason Beiler, one of the founders of the company.