Solar Power for Houses of Worship and Community Buildings

Do you often wonder why so few houses of worship have solar power? The reasons that they should have solar power are very clear. First, the cost of electricity keeps going up and eroding the funds they have for their core missions in caring for their spiritual community. Almost every religious leader would agree that our duty on Earth is to build a better world, regardless of how those visions may vary. A better world certainly includes less pollution to most people, though, doesn’t it?

So it makes sense to wonder why more churches, synagogues, mosques, and shrines don’t have solar.

The obstacles are obvious on a spreadsheet, just not to the naked eye.  One of the main and immediate benefits to getting solar in America is the solar investment tax credit, which is 30% of the total cost of the system, installed. Almost every house of worship, local government, HOA, homeless shelter, and other organization that does good work in our communities has non-profit status.  Since they don’t pay taxes, they cannot benefit from a tax credit.  This discourages those organizations from going solar.

But no more!

The Inflation Reduction Act passed in August of 2022 included a provision to convert the tax credit to a U.S.Treasury Grant of the same amount for nonprofit entities. It did take a while for the rules to be promulgated, but that has now happened and many of my newest opportunities are with nonprofit entities. These institutions knew they wanted to own their power for years but were financially savvy enough to wait until the playing field had been leveled for them.

If you are involved in a local government, nonprofit institution, or house of worship, and would like to see how owning your power would help protect your future budget for your core goals, please reach out to me to discuss the options.

Andrew Ehrnstein

Owner – Energy Consultant

Solar 4 Planet A