When people drive up to Community of Grace Presbyterian Church in Sandy, they’re greeted by an array of rooftop solar panels — some of them in the shape of a cross.
Pastor Hansen Wendlandt said it’s a visible symbol of the congregation’s commitment to stewarding God’s creation and protecting people from the effects of fossil fuel emissions.
“It becomes a statement to the community. It becomes a statement to your own members that this is what you believe in. This is how [we] believe we're called to take care of our neighborhood.”
The church of around 200 congregants now gets 85% of its power from the sun, thanks to its 110 solar panels. That saves thousands of dollars a year on energy costs, Wendlandt said, which boosts the church’s ability to do things like support refugee families and work with foster children who age out of the system.
“Every dollar that we can move away from spending on energy — we can spend it to take care of our community,” he said.
Community of Grace is just one of several Utah houses of worship that have gone solar in recent years. Calvary Baptist Church installed a large solar array on the roof of its building near downtown Salt Lake City, a project that also powers nearby electric vehicle charging stations. In Centerville, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection’s solar system helps the church avoid 26.6 tons of carbon emissions per year. The list also includes St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church near Logan, Temple Har Shalom in Park City and Mt. Olympus Presbyterian in Holladay.
It shouldn’t be surprising to see congregations gravitate toward generating their own clean power, Wendlandt said.
“Consistently through Scripture, we're called to all kinds of ways of caring for the vulnerable,” he said. “In this day and age, the environment has created such a hazard for people all around the world.”
New federal tax credits funded through the Inflation Reduction Act could open the door for more churches to follow that lead. The incentive covers at least 30% of the cost for nonprofit organizations to install solar, with additional funding for projects that are located in low income communities or areas that have historically produced fossil fuels.
Lisa Frank, executive director of national advocacy group Environment America, called the new tax break a game changer. Prior to the act passing last year, she said, federal incentives for green energy generally excluded churches and other nonprofits, so the price tag was often cost-prohibitive.
“I don't think that there's ever been a better time for houses of worship to get their power from above,” Frank said. “We've got plentiful sunshine, especially in Utah, and there's now generous solar incentives to help them take advantage of it.”
The challenge, Frank said, is that church leaders — like many Americans — don’t often closely follow every piece of legislation that comes out. So most aren’t aware that they now qualify for the federal incentive.
That’s why her organization has partnered with people like Wendlandt to host community information meetings. In September, they invited other local faith and nonprofit groups to Community of Grace for an up-close look at the church’s solar project.
“Some of the best spokespeople on this are religious leaders and institutions that have already gone solar in the past and can share their experience going through it and what led their congregation to want to make that choice,” Frank said
Another challenge is figuring out how to drum up enough cash to front the project, since the tax credits are essentially reimbursement. When Community of Grace installed its solar panels in 2018, the Inflation Reduction Act hadn’t passed yet. The congregation was fortunate to get a grant from a utility company that made the project possible, Wendlandt said, and that type of funding could potentially be an option for others, too.
Then there’s the challenge of getting everyone within a church on board with solar. Any change can be hard for congregations, Wendlandt said, even when it’s switching out the carpet or adjusting the music. So with something that leans up against political issues, there’s potential for disagreement.
In his view, however, there’s less resistance to solar power in churches than people might think. And the chance for a congregation to hold meaningful conversations about environmental issues and how they intersect with the church’s mission, he said, can be fruitful even if they don’t result in immediate action.
“Any time we can move people toward realizing the damage that's being done and realizing the impact they can have for healing the planet — every little step, no matter where those people are on the spectrum, can really make a big difference.”
