On Monday, May 5, we received the official word that our Bright Hope for Tomorrow solar panel array was ready to be switched on. It was a cloudy and rainy day, but – at about 11 AM – the technicians from Revision Energy were on site with our own Pete Dalrymple, and the switches were flipped to the “ON” position.
I was inside the church at the time, and the power surged slightly, but then everything seemed to operate normally.
The really exciting moment happened later on Monday evening, when the Session gathered for their regular monthly meeting. One of our Elders, Michael Chen, has been monitoring the church’s energy usage in an online app for several years, and he showed the Session a graph of exactly when the panels were switched on. Prior to 11 AM on Monday, there were these red wavy lines (kind of like an electrocardiogram) showing energy usage – pulling electricity from the Eversource power grid – and then, when the panels were switched on, the red wavy lines went down to zero, and there was a foundation of green.
You have likely heard the expression that being “in the red” means that you’re using more than you are producing. Well, now, when it comes to electricity, Bedford Presbyterian Church is “in the green” in that our efforts to go green are keeping us out of the red, electricity-wise.
A screenshot of energy use on the day BPC turned on the solar panels.
I am not a scientist or an engineer, but it would appear that during the day (even on cloudy and rainy days), our panels will produce more than enough energy so that we do not need to be “in the red.” At night, when the sun is not shining, we will be pulling some electricity from the Eversource power grid. Our hope is that, over time, what we produce on site with our panels during the day will be more than what we use overnight.
We have been given the opportunity to take better care of God’s creation. This opportunity is a gift that we offer back to God, our community, and the wider world. There are many people to thank for bringing this gift to fruition – from our Green Team to our Stewardship and Finance Team to everyone who contributed financially. We will be doing some big “thank you’s” next Sunday, May 18, but for today (and many days, and hopefully years to come), BPC is “in the green.”
Because of the generous grace of God – seen and known in and through all of you – we have bright hope for tomorrow.
Thanks be to God!
See you in church!
Grace and Peace,
John
Prepare for Worship
This Week: “Whose Voice? Hearing, Knowing, Trusting, and Following”
- Read Psalm 23
- Read Acts 9:32-43
- Read John 10:22-30
- Read or sing Hymn # 170