By Christina Leslie | Correspondent
The campus of St. James Parish, Red Bank, has come up with 1,224 ways to rein in energy costs while adhering to the principles outlined in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home”: new solar panels atop the buildings of the Monmouth County faith community.
A May 23 ceremony introduced the new solar system, which will produce on-site generated renewable energy. Installed by IGS Solar and Green Energy Construction and Consulting, the system is sized at 412 kilowatt-hours and projected to generate about one-third of the power needs of St. James Church, rectory and convent, St. James School and Red Bank Catholic High School, Vincent J. Eck Student Center and Fine and Performing Arts Center, which use a combined 1.35 million kilowatt-hours annually.
Msgr. Phillip A. Lowery, pastor, described the project as a “co-adventure” with the diocesan Chancery, and lauded the assistance of Anthony J. Mingarino, (now-retired) diocesan chancellor and chief administrative officer; current diocesan CAO Joseph Bianchi, and Dan Faistl of the St. James Parish Finance Council.
“We started to investigate how to save money,” Msgr. Lowery said. “We are always looking for cost savings. [The three men] would feed each other ideas.”
IGS Solar has financed and will own and operate the system. St. James will purchase 100 percent of the power generated through a long-term power purchase agreement with the company, which will allow them to use the electricity that is generated on site. To assure a long-term result, the company replaced a number of the roofs on buildings before installing the solar panels.
“[The company] had reasonable figures, and we would get our roofs done,” Msgr. Lowery continued. “There would be savings down the road, and it would work out well now and for the schools in 10 years. For me, it’s all about the cost savings, how we can save money on Catholic education.”
“We have worked with IGS Solar and Green Energy Construction before and find them excellent partners. Across the Diocese we have solar projects underway at 11 parishes,” said Scot Pirozzi, diocesan director of construction and real estate.
The year-long project was carefully scheduled to lessen the effects on the students and staff, Msgr. Lowery noted. The solar company kept construction debris corralled, and local utility company JCP&L switched off electricity power to the entire campus the day after Thanksgiving when the school and rectory were closed.
“It was a parish, grammar school and high school team effort,” said Robert Abatemarco, principal of Red Bank Catholic High School. “We didn’t want it to go through the school year, but we had to pause for inspections and permits. The company did a great job [with] no disturbance to the school.”
IGS Solar installed a live display in the high school’s science classroom which measures the amount of carbon dioxide and trees saved by solar power, Abatemarco stated.
“The kids love to watch the display, day by day and panel by panel,” the principal said. “We turned [the system] on in early May, and already, since May 2, we have saved over 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and 600 trees.
“We are taught to be good stewards of the earth in ‘Laudato Si,’” he concluded. “This will help sustain ‘Mother Earth’ instead of destroying her.”