MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - After three years of planning and collecting funds, Haslett Community Church will officially be adding renewable energy to their building. Meridian Township Recycling and Energy Coordinator, LeRoy Harvey explains, “John Sarver and I visited them, just a few months ago just to talk about options and brainstorm with them about ways that they could make this happen.”

Haslett Community Church’s Green Team came to the decision to place solar panels on their roof and committed to the project just last December.

The solar panel will be a 20 kilowatt system which will cost $60,000; in which the church received money from private parties in order to fund the project. It may seems like a lot, but Haslett Community Church Member, David Arnosti explained that this project is designed to pay itself off over the course of 20 years. Arnosti explained, “we expect that the system will make enough electricity to save us $3,000 of electricity a year.”

The project does more than reduce their carbon footprint and save money, it will also help the church continue to serve the community. Haslett Community Church runs a food pantry and Arnosti says, “we have six freezers as part of that we estimate about 15% of our electrical bill. So in generating electricity using the solar ray, we will be supporting the food pantry and supporting the mission to Haslett and it’s residents in a larger sense.”

Haslett Community church is only the second church in Michigan to add solar energy to their building, but they’re hoping more congregations and other groups will soon join them. “We hope that we’re just the tip of the iceberg that in a few years they’ll be many other groups that can use renewable energy in the way, “ said Arnosti

The dedication ceremony for the solar panel will take place Sunday morning on April, 23, 2017, the same weekend as Earth Day.