Christian Townsdin (Keystone’s lead in our solar panel project) gave a presentation after July 19th on-line worship, to update on our fundraising, and share numbers from one installer, Sun Path (he’s gotten quotes from two installers, and Sun Path’s was the best price). According to Christian:
"Last time we were in person, reviewing our fundraising thermometer in the narthex at Keystone, we were 41% of the way to our goal. Now (he held the gauge with more red up to video screen… drum roll…), we are 57% of the way to our goal!
We are staying home to be safe, but this moving!! Share the news of our work to put solar on our church roof: You can click on this story on the Keystone web site and post it on your Facebook page, or you can send folks the link. And you can easily contribute to the fund. Every bit will get us there.
To contribute to this solar panel fund-raising, send a check marked “solar panels” to the church office or donate by clicking on the button below and choosing “Solar Panel Project” in the box that says “(Optional) Use This Donation For …”
In an earlier email, Christian wrote:
“20.78 kW of solar will fit nicely on our roof, providing 103% of our estimated current needs.
“Our investment of $41,507 now is estimated to profit us by over $70,000 over the next 30 years. Yes, you read that right, we pay off the panels in 15 years, and then go on to make more than we paid for them in the next 15 years. … The basic reason it's such a good investment is that the cost of electricity generally rises by about 4% a year. If that were to continue, we've bought the ability to make most of the electricity we need now and will benefit from that over time.
”Financial benefits aside, this is the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do because our time to mitigate the most serious negative effects of climate change (global warming) is running very very short. We have the money, we can do this, and we can set an example of our values and the right way forward for the community.”
You can read more about the installer, Sun Path, and their estimates for Keystone’s solar panels in this PDF.