Solar Faithful is an organization with one main mission. Their goal is to increase solar access for houses of worship and faith-based nonprofits.
The Refuge Church in Grandville is one of many houses of worship that have received donated solar panels from Solar Faithful.
FOX 17 News first visited The Refuge Church back in April, when they received their solar panel donation and the installation process had just begun. Now, their solar panels are up and running!
Gerry Koning, the pastor at the Refuge Church in Grandville, had been anticipating the solar panel installation for some time. "Then, finally it came! In the morning, we were able to tell the congregation that we were making our power from the sun, and everybody erupted into a great amount of applause," said Koning. "That was pretty special.”
Koning expressed that some members initially had doubts about solar energy in the state of Michigan. Even though Michigan is known to have plenty of cloud cover, the state produces enough sunlight to provide solar energy. In fact, the Refuge Church has been able to produce more solar energy than their building needs. The excess energy is then distributed back to the grid, to nearby neighborhoods.
"We're providing some green carbon free energy to our neighbors. I realize they don't know that. They can't tell the difference from what is made by the coal powered plant or at Port Sheldon. But, we know it is," said Koning. "We'd love to let them know that we're allowing them to have and utilize some green energy that is coming from our rooftop."
Chris Colyn is a member of the Refuge Church in Grandville, and he sees using solar energy as a great opportunity.
"It's an interesting proposal that was brought to the church. How do we love our neighbors, love our community, love our world? How do we make things better? And this was an opportunity for us to see a couple benefits," said Colyn. "We can reduce our operating expenses a little bit, and reduce the pollution that goes in the world. That's kind of what we are as a church, trying to make the world a better place through everything in creation.”
Pastor Koning expressed that there are several reasons that make solar energy beneficial.
“Profit is one thing or saving money is one thing, but doing something that's helpful to the environment, and God's creation is another thing," said Koning.
Solar Faithful has installed several solar panels to houses of worship and faith-based nonprofits, all completely funded. Rob Rafson is the president of Solar Faithful.
According to their website, Solar Faithful aims to increase solar access among houses of worship and faith-based nonprofits by offering multiple clean energy adoption models to equitably and faithfully lead the clean energy revolution.
They additionally provide education and job training to staff and congregants. According to Solar Faithful, "high quality training for clean energy and construction jobs can bring well-paying jobs and access to a growing industry."
“We're starting to gain some momentum and some interest. It's especially important and exciting to see that in low income communities to see that yes, in fact, energy transition is something that everybody can participate in," said Rafson.
When speaking with Pastor Koning, he said that the process was easy and thoroughly explained by Solar Faithful. He can't see why other houses of worship in West Michigan wouldn't want to have their energy created by the sun, as well.
For more information on their job training, and how your house of worship or faith-based nonprofit can get involved, click here.
