St. Philip Benizi Parish is Set to Save $2.3 MM by Installing Solar Panels
FULLERTON, Calif. (PRWEB) June 21, 2018 -- Since his first day at the Catholic Parish two years ago, Fr. Denniz Kriz took on the large task of lowering the electricity bills of St. Philip Benizi, which surpassed $70K annually. He was aware that powering up the several buildings in the complex and the high bills that came with it was taking away valuable resources from the parish that could be better spent providing services for members of the community.
Fr. Dennis first looked to energy efficiency, which included upgrading most of the lighting and applying, in his words, some “Draconian” measures such as using the AC as little as possible and even sending the staff home on days when it is over 100F. All these added up to some savings – bills went down to $63K a year- but nothing close to what he had hoped. Instead he turned to Vaha Energy, one of the premier solar integrators in Southern California, to explore the feasibility of installing solar, as well as consolidating the several onsite utility meters. He wasn’t sure if the numbers would work, since the church, as a non-profit organization, couldn’t take advantage of any tax incentives.
“After a thorough analysis, Vaha Energy demonstrated that by combining the meters and installing a 114 kW system, the parish could save more than $2.3MM over the life of the solar modules. This is a substantial amount of money to spend to have the lights on and use AC in summer,” says Gaye Tomlinson, the Chief Operating Officer of Vaha Energy. “We looked at multiple scenarios to find the perfect system metrics that provided a 6-year payback for the church, which is quite short considering they don’t receive any solar tax incentives.”
Fr. Dennis and the Finance Council of St. Philip Benizi decided to follow through with the project. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which approves and oversees all projects at their parishes, added Vaha Energy’s installation team as a preferred partner to their vendor list.
Fr. Dennis says, “Everything that we will do at our Parish over the coming decades will be better done through better trained and informed people thanks to the resources being available as a result of the savings from the solar project.” He adds that the solar partner matters as well. “Vaha Energy was great, walked with us every step of the way. They immediately understood both our theological and economic reasons for pursuing this project and helped us see it through the end.”
As for any advice for other houses of worship who are spending a lot of money on power, Fr. Dennis says, “Honestly, there’s a question to be asked: Would you prefer to spend the contributions that you receive on providing services to your Parish & community or would you prefer to spend them on electricity?”
Lisa Smith, Vaha Sustainable Energy, http://vahaenergy.com, +1 (949) 419-6422, [email protected]
Share this article