Though the cost of just about everything is on the rise — from paper to fuel — there was one thing Elaine Beam was elated to see go up: a solar array atop St. Michael School in Brattleboro.

The principal of the preschool through grade 12 school said “every year our budget is so fragile with everything going up” in cost, but projections are that in seven years the solar array will recoup its investment.

Solar power will cut energy costs and thus contribute to the financial stability of the school, provide students with hands-on learning opportunities about solar energy, and contribute to efforts to care for the Earth.

“The Earth has been given to us, and we are to be good stewards of it,” said Father Henry Furman, pastor of St. Michael Church. “This is part of the mandate to be good stewards.”

Electricity from the 100-panel array will be used by the school, the church, the rectory, and St. Brigid’s Kitchen and Pantry — all on Walnut Street. Estimates call for about $11,000 in electrical savings a year. The school alone has paid about $8,000 in annual electric costs, Beam noted.

“Though we provide estimates to our customers of what their array’s monthly solar generation will likely be, each year’s solar production will vary depending on how sunny the weather is,” said Victoria Roberts, co-owner and business manager of Southern Vermont Solar based in Dummerston, the company that installed the array that went online in August.

“It’s like harvesting the sun,” Roberts said.

St. Michael’s is the only Catholic school in the Diocese of Burlington with its own solar array.

The array was not designed to cover all electrical expenses of the four buildings, but the cost savings is significant.

The array was installed on a new roof to support the panels which are not attached to the roof but ballasted.

The idea for the project was first raised by a parishioner and alumna of St. Michael High School who wanted to do something for the school and parish with long-term benefits. The anonymous donor funded most of the project.

The school and parish will apply for a 30 percent credit of the total cost through the Inflation Reduction Act, a direct payment from the IRS, explained Andrew Cunningham, director of sales and business development for Southern Vermont Solar.

—Originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.