WELCOME TO OUR SOLAR TOUR

United Christian Church 8525 New Falls Road Levittown, PA 19056

https://www.ucclevittown.org/

(215) 946-6800

ucclevittown@verizon.net

This file is current as of August 14, 2024

A Brief Introduction

• United Christian Church.
• A progressive, congregationally-run church.
• Affiliated with two national denominations: the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
• The United Christian Church (UCC) was established in 1986 by the union of the former Church of the Reformation (this location since 1955) and First Christian Church (formerly located on Woodbourne Road, Levittown).
• Progressive Christianity is not necessarily synonymous with progressive politics.
• Progressive Christianity is characterized by a willingness to question tradition, acceptance of human diversity, a strong emphasis on social justice and care for the poor and the oppressed, and environmental stewardship of the earth. Progressive Christians have a deep belief in the centrality of the instruction to love one another (John 15:17) within the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Tour Purpose

• Why the Tour?

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• Demonstrate How One Church is Using Solar Thermal and Solar PV Systems and Realizing:

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• Monetary Savings.

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• Environmental Benefits.

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• Get Out the Word on How Non-Profits Can Use the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-169, IRA) To Defray Initial Costs.

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• Direct Payment in Lieu of Tax Credits Provision

Tour Agenda

• Presentation of UCC’s Two Different Solar Powered Systems.

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• The Solar Thermal System captures thermal energy from the sunlight to heat water.

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• The Solar Photovoltaic (PV) System generates electricity via the photovoltaic effect.

WHY SOLAR?

• The quantity of sunshine that the planet receives in an hour and a half is enough to power the world for a year.

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• Solar energy is a renewable and harvested form of energy over time. It is free and has no negative impact on the environment.

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• Solar energy does not discharge any pollutants into the atmosphere, making it a clean form of energy that does not harm our environment.

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• The electricity generated by the Solar PV system is electricity UCC does not have to pay for. The money not paid to an electricity supplier is money available for other uses.

Solar Thermal System (Hot Water System) Description

• The photo on the right shows the two Solar Thermal panels on the classroom wing roof.
• The church purchased its solar thermal system from Exact Solar in 2008.
• Often making hot water is the second largest energy expense in the home. (18% of the utility bill per the DOE).
• In our system the sun is used to achieve and maintain the desired water temperature in the supply tank. A backup electric heating coil is used for cloudy days and high demand.

Solar Thermal System Description (con’t.)

• Glycol in a closed loop is circulated through the Solar Thermal panels to capture heat from the sunlight and transfer the heat to the water in the storage tank.
• In this active system a Steca TR 0301 U Temperature differential controller constantly compares the temperatures between the collector (T1) and the lower area of the storage tank (T2) and controls the transfer of heat from the collector and the storage tank.

Solar Thermal System Description (con’t.)

• We do not have a method to track the savings achieved by using heat from the sun to create hot water for use in the building.
• However, the Steca TR 0301 U controller has an animated graphic display, which offers a complete visualization of the solar energy system's operating status and solar circuit. In other words one can see that the system is working as designed.

Solar PV System Description

• The photo shows the 24 Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels (an array) mounted on the church’s roof.
• We have a mix of PV panels. There are eighteen 300W Trina* panels, five 290W Jinko* panels and one 295W Jinko panel. They make up a 7.2 kW Direct Current (DC) system.
• The PV Panels are mounted on the southwest facing side of the roof to maximize the time the panels are in direct sunshine.

Solar PV System Description (con’t.)

• This photo is a rooftop close-up of the 24 Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels mounted on the church’s roof.
• This interconnected group of PV panels is known as an array.

Solar PV System Description (con’t.)

• The roof-mounted PV panels generate direct current (DC) electricity. It needs to be converted to alternating current (AC) electricity for use within the church as well as to connect with the PECO electrical grid.
• The DC power generated by the PV panels are routed through a cable to an inverter for conversion to AC electricity. The photo shows our SolarEdge SE-6000H inverter. It is located in our utility room.

Solar PV System Description (con’t.)

• From the inverter the AC electricity is routed through a conduit to a circuit breaker panel and made available for use.
• The meter on the left is marked as “IN-MTR”. It measures the church’s use of electricity from the GRID when the solar PV system production is less than UCC’s demand.
• The meter on the right, marked “OUT-MTR” measures the solar generated power that exceeds church’s demand. This electricity is provided to the grid.

Solar PV System Production

• We monitor the quantity of electricity produced by the Solar PV system via a phone app.
• The bar chart shows the Mega watts / month generated for the most recent twelve months (August 2023 through July 2024).
• Lifetime as July 31, 2024 the system has generated almost 49 MWh. This represents 75,800 pounds of CO2 emissions or 573 equivalent trees planted.
• FYI. One mega watt hour can power the average American home for 1.2 months, drive an electric vehicle 3,600 miles, or run two modern refrigerators for a year.

2024

| 2023

Solar PV System Production (con’t.)

• This bar chart shows the electricity, measured in Mega watt hours, generated per year from January 2019 through July 2024.

Solar PV System Production (con’t.)

• The app enables us to monitor the quantity of electricity produced by each panel of the Solar PV array.

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• The screen capture on the right is from the phone app. It depicts the electricity being generated by each panel measured in watt hours.

Solar PV System Production and Value

• The table on the right shows the August 2023 through July 2024 production (kWH) by month.
• To estimate the value of the charge per kWh generated by the PV System we used the “price to compare” price established by the servicing utility (PECO).

Solar PV System

A Gift That Keeps Giving

• The Solar PV system at UCC was provided at no cost to the church by the then owners of Exact Solar.
• In 2019, as a non-profit with no tax liability, UCC could not have claimed the available tax credits to reduce its cost of installing such a Solar PV System.
• A power purchasing agreement (PPA) between the prior owners and UCC enabled them to retain ownership of the system and claim the available tax credits.
• They generously gifted the electricity from the PV system to UCC.

Solar PV Systems Cost: Non-Profits Have Access to Tax Benefits

A GAME CHANGER:

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• Recent legislation, part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-169, IRA), gives tax-exempt entities equal access to clean energy incentives by introducing the direct payment (a.k.a. elective pay) option. This allows qualifying tax-exempt entities to receive a direct payment from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in lieu of a tax credit.

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• Thanks to this new option, non-profits, including houses of worship, theaters, libraries, animal shelters, community health centers, and museums, can better afford clean energy upgrades. The long-term savings can be used to advance these non-profits’ mission and expand services to disadvantaged communities.

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• The non-profit community needs to be made aware of this opportunity.

COMPLETION OF OUR TOUR�THANK YOU