High River United Church Looks Skyward For Energy

The High River United Church is looking to the heavens for its power.

Reverend David Robertson says they're going to be putting solar panels on the church's roof.

"It's been in the subconscious of our congregation for some time and the conversation surfaced again from an idea circulated around our council by Mark Smillie and it gained traction because Mark has an installation on his house roof here in town and he got busy thinking about how we could be more efficient and decrease our carbon footprint and signal to the neighbourhood that we're leading in terms of green energy," he says.

They have grants from the United Church of Canada and the Foothills Energy Co-op for most of the $68,000 for 76 panels that will go on the south-facing side of the church.

"The United Church of Canada has grants under the Faithful Footprint program recognizing that so many of our church buildings are older and not energy efficient for the national church has made grants available to churches to upgrade their energy needs," Reverend Susan Lukey says. "So we were able to get a grant of $30,000 from the United Church of Canada and in addition, the Foothills Energy CO-OP came alongside us with a grant of $10,000 to help us with this installation."

Reverend Robertson says the church is going to explore other ways it can become more active in the CO-OP.

"We're hoping the project signals positive leadership from us as a congregation for the community and signals our commitment to take care of the environment and being a leader in that way," Reverend Robertson says. "Generally speaking the United Church of Canada has always been a leader in stewardship of creation, and creating the right relationship and respect with creation and being a leader in that regard so we are mindful of our relationship with the planet and that our ethics and our way of life reflect that to the best of our ability."

Reverend Robertson says the energy generated in the summer during sunnier times would be put into the CO-OP and then go back to the church at times when it's not so sunny.

They hope to have them in place this summer.

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