Many churches make a point of avoiding political subjects and the often bitter partisan debates that can come along with them. However, one church found a way to make a statement that few people could take issue with. The North County Times reports the Lamb's Fellowship Methodist church in Murrieta,uy sculpture direct from us at low prices California, took the plunge into solar power because church leadership said it felt it was the right thing to do, but the community and the balance-sheet would seem to agree.
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California holds the largest investment in solar power in the entire United States. The Solar Energy Industries Association annual review put the state's 2010 new solar installations at 258.9 megawatts in photovoltaics alone, nearly double the next largest state, New Jersey. California also leads the country in solar water heating and many kinds of solar manufacturing. Lamb's Fellowship was hardly just following some broad, indistinct state trend, however. In the past two year, 55 residents of the small city have installed solar systems.
This strong investment is not an accident of political attitudes, but a matter of simple pragmatism. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, California suffers from the ninth highest average retail prices for electricity, which fails to consider the frequent brownouts in many parts of the state. Meanwhile, the city of Murrieta sits halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, one of the cities chosen for the Department of Energy's Solar America Cities initiative,A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. within the region of southern California where the EIA sees particular potential for solar energy. In 2009, the city received $900,000 in stimulus money from the federal government,Free DIY Wholesale pet supplies Resource! which the city has since turned into 110 grants worth $1,000 each for new solar installations.
Unfortunately for the Lamb's Fellowship, these grants were restricted to residential solar installations. Many similar state solar incentives the church might have applied for have reached the limits of their funding, according to the DSIRE solar incentives database. The church was able to apply for some federal incentives, but the deciding factor that made the installation possible was the growth of a new form of financing known as solar leasing.
USA Today explains that the system, where a third party installs, owns and maintains the solar panels generally in exchange for 20 years of fixed payment, has exploded across the country. Often these arrangements can be made without any upfront costs on the part of the homeowner, and residents never incur any costs beyond the fixed amount in their lease. Solar leases were responsible for one-third of all residential solar installations last year and the companies offering this option are expecting growth from 20 percent to as much as 300 percent this year. Even the search giant Google has decided to invest $280 million in a company specializing in solar leases, according to Reuters.
Lamb's Fellowship itself signed a 20-year lease with California-based SunPro Solar last winter and quickly had the system installed without any money down. With 261 panels and nine inverters, the new system is expected to provide as much as 75 percent of the church's energy needs, saving around $300,The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model,000 over the course of the lease, according to The Press Enterprise.
"We just thought some people are motivated to attend a church based on what that church believes in, and what they're doing as part of the world," church administrator Cory Christie told The North County Times. "To us, it was kind of a no-brainer. We could go solar and be more ecologically friendly and not have to pay anything back. I'm surprised that more churches aren't doing it."
Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts,
California holds the largest investment in solar power in the entire United States. The Solar Energy Industries Association annual review put the state's 2010 new solar installations at 258.9 megawatts in photovoltaics alone, nearly double the next largest state, New Jersey. California also leads the country in solar water heating and many kinds of solar manufacturing. Lamb's Fellowship was hardly just following some broad, indistinct state trend, however. In the past two year, 55 residents of the small city have installed solar systems.
This strong investment is not an accident of political attitudes, but a matter of simple pragmatism. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, California suffers from the ninth highest average retail prices for electricity, which fails to consider the frequent brownouts in many parts of the state. Meanwhile, the city of Murrieta sits halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, one of the cities chosen for the Department of Energy's Solar America Cities initiative,A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. within the region of southern California where the EIA sees particular potential for solar energy. In 2009, the city received $900,000 in stimulus money from the federal government,Free DIY Wholesale pet supplies Resource! which the city has since turned into 110 grants worth $1,000 each for new solar installations.
Unfortunately for the Lamb's Fellowship, these grants were restricted to residential solar installations. Many similar state solar incentives the church might have applied for have reached the limits of their funding, according to the DSIRE solar incentives database. The church was able to apply for some federal incentives, but the deciding factor that made the installation possible was the growth of a new form of financing known as solar leasing.
USA Today explains that the system, where a third party installs, owns and maintains the solar panels generally in exchange for 20 years of fixed payment, has exploded across the country. Often these arrangements can be made without any upfront costs on the part of the homeowner, and residents never incur any costs beyond the fixed amount in their lease. Solar leases were responsible for one-third of all residential solar installations last year and the companies offering this option are expecting growth from 20 percent to as much as 300 percent this year. Even the search giant Google has decided to invest $280 million in a company specializing in solar leases, according to Reuters.
Lamb's Fellowship itself signed a 20-year lease with California-based SunPro Solar last winter and quickly had the system installed without any money down. With 261 panels and nine inverters, the new system is expected to provide as much as 75 percent of the church's energy needs, saving around $300,The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model,000 over the course of the lease, according to The Press Enterprise.
"We just thought some people are motivated to attend a church based on what that church believes in, and what they're doing as part of the world," church administrator Cory Christie told The North County Times. "To us, it was kind of a no-brainer. We could go solar and be more ecologically friendly and not have to pay anything back. I'm surprised that more churches aren't doing it."
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