Location: Springfield, Virginia - Catholic Diocese of Arlington (CDA)

Catholic Organization: St. Bernadette Catholic Church & School

Leadership: Fr. Don Rooney, Parish Pastor

Timing: July 2020

Opportunities:

• Relatively expensive utility bills

• Large parish campus with various multi-purpose buildings including flat and south facing roofs

• Fr. Rooney is also President of the Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers (CADEIO), which is a leading advocate for Care for Creation

Challenges:

• Parish had limited experience needed to evaluate economic and energy benefits that could be achieved with solar and LED lighting

• Parish would be one of the first parishes in the Diocese to utilize solar; CDA did not yet have an organized path for approving such projects

Implementation:

• Catholic Energies created economic models from the facility’s electricity bills to evaluate savings potential and designed a solution combining solar with an LED retrofit to reduce overall energy consumption and costs

• Catholic Energies helped the parish vet and select the LED and solar contractors and served as the parish “owner’s Rep” throughout the installation and commissioning

• Catholic Energies collaborated with CDA’s Office of Planning, Construction and Facilities to jointly create a pathway for Diocese approval of solar installations

Results:

• 248kW rooftop solar offsets over 50% of their annual energy consumption

• 100% of the project costs were paid for by a third-party investment group secured by Catholic Energies

• Their Power Purchase Agreement is estimated to save them over $300,000 over the PPA term and reduce their carbon footprint by nearly 9,500 metric tons