More local houses of worship are realizing the impact that their facility energy usage can have and enjoying the cost savings, health and comfort benefits that moving to cleaner greener energy can bring.
Please contact us if your house of worship needs to make upgrades to their heating, ventilation or A/C systems or is considering investing in cleaner heating or cooling or renewable energy. RAICA offers assistance to congregations that are looking to make energy efficiency improvements (insulation, new HVAC, lighting, etc.) or clean energy investments (heat pumps and/or solar panels, etc.). We can help connect you to local, state and federal sources of funding and financing. More info on our website https://www.raica.net/energyefficiency.
Now is a great time to invest in your House of Worship.
Buried on Page 1,729 of the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill approved by the U.S. Senate Aug. 10 in a bipartisan vote is a project titled "Energy efficiency materials pilot program." It would fund $50 million in grants to nonprofits, including religious congregations, so they can buy new energy-efficient heating and cooling systems for their buildings. The program, to be administered by the Department of Energy, would provide grants of up to $200,000 each for nonprofits that want to purchase new HVAC units and generators or fund replacements of windows and doors to make them more energy efficient. Details of how the program will be administered are forthcoming but with an estimated 350,000 religious congregations in the U.S. this money will go fast so get your planning and quotes ready now to submit when it comes out.
This article was written by Jackie Ebner, along with information from the National Catholic Reporter, August 2021.