The church’s solar panels have been installed and are now pumping out clean energy to reduce our church’s carbon footprint and lower our power bills. The team at Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL) in Decatur, Georgia, was instrumental in helping make our vision become a reality. At their request, Nancy Greear, leader of our Environment and Energy Committee, wrote the following article for the GIPL blog describing our project.
“Caring for Creation is an important part of the Outreach Ministry of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church. In 2017 our pastor, Bob Prim, and the Earth Ministry Committee (subcommittee of Outreach) presented a Lenten study series to our congregation based on the book Care for Creation (a Franciscan spirituality of the earth) by Ilia Deleo, O.S.F.; Keith Douglas Warner, O.F.M.; and Pamela Wood.
“In this five-week series we discussed the theological and scientific aspects of caring for creation, the issues around climate change, and how we as a community of faith could address this in our personal lives as well as a congregation.
“As a result, the Session of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church voted to reduce the church’s energy use with a goal of installing solar panels for our church’s electric needs. GIPL assisted us along this journey with a Power Wise Energy Audit, a matching grant for energy efficiency improvements to our building, and guidance through exploring solar installation options.
“Due to a generous gift to our church we were able to move forward toward this goal and in May 2020 our solar panels were installed! We at Nacoochee Presbyterian Church are very grateful for the help and guidance we received from Codi Norred, Program Director at GIPL, and the entire GIPL team on this amazing journey.”