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The One Hope Community Church in North Philadelphia’s Hunting Park neighborhood is going solar, and it plans to share its savings with neighbors.
A 27-kilowatt array being completed on the church’s roof this week will produce more electricity than the church uses each year. Part of the savings and the value of renewable energy credits produced by the project will fund small grants to help four nearby households pay their bills.
The arrangement is a way to sidestep Pennsylvania regulations that do not allow community solar, a model in which multiple households share the power from a single solar array.
“This is an innovative way for solar to provide benefits to the community, without violating the community solar rules,” said Julian Burnett, community engagement manager at Solar States, which installed the array.
Community solar is an option in Delaware and New Jersey. Pennsylvania lawmakers and advocates have been working for years to enable it in their state.
In a typical community solar project, a group of households use the power from a shared solar array. They can be renters who don’t own their rooftops, or homeowners who can’t afford the big upfront cost of their own solar systems. Credits from the shared power reduce the households’ electric bills.
The solar array on the One Hope Community Church roof will be owned by a coalition of churches, nonprofits and block captains called the Hunting Park Community Solar Initiative. That organization will share in the revenue generated by the panels, which will fund $600 grants to four households and one neighborhood nonprofit each year. The upfront cost of the array — $75,000 — was funded by donations, including some from several faith groups.
“That’s giving away $3,000 a year to the community, all powered by the sun,” said Allen Drew, director of the Hunting Park Community Solar Initiative and pastor of the Christian Reformed Church.
