After a five-month delay, St. Andrew’s in Owen Sound, Ont., is on its way to becoming the “greenest” Presbyterian church in the country thanks to 32 solar panels on the church roof that began generating electricity on Dec. 14, 2009.
The panels were installed in June and were expected to be active by July, but layers of red tape delayed the process.
Under a 20-year agreement with the Ontario Power Authority, the solar-generated electricity will be fed into the provincial grid. The church will continue to purchase its electricity at the going rate of eight cents per kilowatt hour, but will be paid 80 cents — 10 times that amount — for each kilowatt hour its solar panels produce. With an estimated 8,000 kWh generated each year, the panels should provide about $6,400 yearly, covering more than 80 per cent of the electricity costs incurred by the building.
The three-year project cost about $54,000 and was among a series of initiatives aimed at reducing energy consumption at the 82-year-old church. An additional $65,000 has been earmarked for upgrades including better insulation and fluorescent lighting.
The projects are funded by three undesignated bequests totaling almost a million dollars left to the church by members of the congregation.
Once the process is complete, the church plans to share the steps it has taken toward sustainability in hopes that other groups can undertake similar initiatives in their own buildings.
