In 2022, installation was completed on an 8.6 KW solar array on the community meeting space at the St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church in the Burton Street community in Asheville.

This congregation is a pillar of Western North Carolina’s African American community dating back generations, when meeting were held out of a congregant’s living room. Now overseen by Pastor Charles Martin, the ancillary building whose rooftop hosts the new solar array houses Sunday school classes, a day care, and community training, education, and counseling meetings. 

Pastor Charles is no stranger to making energy-efficiency upgrades. On a tour of the church, he showed our staff the work he had done on upgrading the lighting, heating and cooling, and insulation systems in the old building. Energy bills were cut in half from these upgrades alone, making the project a great one for adding solar and further reducing energy bills. Martin is an excited advocate for energy efficiency and solar for churches, pointing out that every dollar saved on energy bills, in addition to benefiting the environment, allows these organizations to channel those savings toward charitable work in the community.