Funding for Church Energy Efficiency or Renewable Energy—A message from the Presbyterian Hunger Program
For congregations, there are many great webinars and websites out there about how to fund and pursue energy efficiency and renewable energy with financial resources, tax incentives, and pathways provided by this year’s legislation passed through the U.S. Congress. In addition to the curated list below, you can find other great webinars from Interfaith Power and Light as well as Presbyterians for Earth Care (PEC).
Holy Heat Pumps! explains how heat pumps work and how to lower the costs for installation at your churches with the new government funds available to congregations for the first time.
The Tools & Resources to Green Congregations webinar covers the ways houses of worship and religious institutions can update their facilities to become more energy efficient and save on their energy bills. It also offers important information regarding first-time federal funding available to nonprofits to support investment in energy efficiency and renewables.
In the Summer Solstice Webinar on Solar Financing, learn about the different ways congregations can finance solar from Jerry Bernstein, author of IPL’s Solar Financing for Congregations. Then take a deeper look at power purchase agreements, one of the options allowing a congregation to install solar with no up-front costs.
Presbyterians for Earth Care offers a webinar on Federal Funding Resources for Houses of Worship with Tiffany Hartung.
A follow-up webpage from Interfaith Power and Light has a lot of content; the spreadsheet might be particularly helpful to you, as it has things broken down by types of work.
This website deals with what is covered by “direct pay.”
This FAQ may also be useful.
In addition to these webinars and web sites about public funding and tips for saving energy and money, a reminder about the Restoring Creation Loan from the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program. Many congregations have made use of this great resource as a way to get started.
Just to give you an idea about the effectiveness of solar panels, Green Mountain installed them in 2014 with an average monthly bill of $918. After they finished paying for them in 2020, they have saved $18,659 from 2014 prices!! Their electric bill for the building last month was $13 and has averaged $71 a month in 2013.