HYDE PARK — Members at a South Side church plan to build more than 100 solar panels in the coming months, which can power their ministry with sustainable energy and offer a model for other houses of worship to do the same, they said.
Leaders at Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park are set to replace the roof of the church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave., and install 102 solar panels to help the property meet or exceed its own electricity needs.
Engineers estimate the solar panels will generate more energy on average than Augustana currently uses, church officials said. At peak production, the church is expected to sell excess solar power back to the electrical grid, while the church will pull from the grid during slower periods.
Augustana was awarded a $233,880 grant for the project from the city’s Climate Infrastructure Fund last month.
The project must be completed within two years, though it could be done and connected to the grid as early as this fall. If work extends past October, cold weather may push its completion to next spring, parish pastor Rev. Nancy Goede said.
“Part of the city’s plan with these grants is to help people in churches to see, ‘Yes, you could do this,'” Goede said. “… It helps the city take a big step towards being carbon neutral if many institutions are able to take this step in their buildings.”
The city’s grant is a reimbursement, so Augustana will use a short-term loan to pay for the project before the grant is paid out, congregation treasurer Carolyn Rahaman said.
Augustana’s congregation, and its “very active green team” that’s led the charge on the solar array project, are no newbies to the world of sustainability, Goede said.
The green team was created through Faith in Place, an interfaith environmental nonprofit based in Hyde Park which has supported nearly 300 such teams at houses of worship in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Past eco-friendly projects led by the team include prairie restoration work days at nearby forest preserves, organizing air duct cleanings and creating a 10-week environmental stewardship course for churchgoers. The course drew “as many [attendees] as could sit down,” and was extended by several weeks due to its high engagement, Goede said.
Green team members are now preparing to plant native species in an effort to draw more pollinators to the church’s campus, she said.
“Stewardship is a concern for any Christian, any religious person,” Goede said. “This is a huge part of stewardship — how do you make good use of scarce resources like energy?”
But despite their experiences, members of the green team have never worked on a project as challenging as the solar installation, Goede said.
Jim Schwab, an urban planner who led the stewardship classes, oversaw the climate grant application. Schwab’s past experience with government grants was crucial, as he “was not overwhelmed” by the tedious grant process, Goede said.
Volunteers will document the months of work that will go into the solar project as part of their grant obligations. That will help show other houses of worship — and Chicagoans at large — that funds exist to help make their dream green projects a reality, Goede said.
Project leaders want to “let people know this is something that is doable with grant help,” she said. “I think people are deterred by the expense of putting on solar panels, and it [may seem] like, ‘Well, we don’t know enough about [installing] solar.’
“But we don’t know that much about solar either, and we applied for this, and now we’re going forward with it. In the end, it’s enough to know it makes a large difference in your environmental footprint if you switch to an alternate energy source.”
It’s “extremely likely” that Augustana’s members will explore future climate grant funding to bring electric vehicle charging stations to the church once the solar project is done, Goede said.
Seven other city grant recipients will use the funds for energy sustainability projects. They include solar array projects at the Narrow Bridge Arts Club in Woodlawn and Ravenswood Fellowship United Methodist Church in Uptown.
Eleven local climate grant recipients, including ChiFresh Kitchen in Greater Grand Crossing and Imani Village in Pullman, received funds to purchase electric vehicles and build charging stations, according to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office.
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