The 2020 C&I Rooftop Project of the Year demonstrates a way forward for nonprofit, religious organizations nationwide to collaborate and leverage their real estate holdings in scale to find that investor buy-in.

Mission Energy teamed with the Catholic Diocese of Richmond Virginia to create a pathway to install solar across any of its 143 parishes and 26 schools via power purchase agreements (PPAs). The first six projects, ranging in size from 61 kW to 316 kW, were developed simultaneously and funded by a single investor as a portfolio, which all officially came online this year. …

“Getting a one-off 70-kW project for a church is a heavy lift, so now that we are seeing the support by the parishes, and we’re seeing the support by the diocese, we said let’s try to make this a win-win and aggregate a collective bundle,” says Page Gravely, president at Mission Energy.

…With this project as a shining model, the Catholic Diocese of Richmond Virginia demonstrates its commitment to solar and is now targeting as much as 70 percent of their state-wide portfolio for rooftop solar within the next three years. Gravely says they’re deep into working on the next batch of 12 to 20 parishes for the next placement of capital.

“They all have to stand independently on their economic merits, but our job is to enable this confluence of economic benefit and this conviction of the care of creation,” Gravely says. “Sure, they want to save money, but these parishes want to show they’re walking the walk and showing the next generation that yes we do care about this.”

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