Solar panels line the roof of Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave., in April 2026.
Solar panels line the roof of Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave., in April 2026.
A Hyde Park church has completed a rooftop solar project expected to meet most of its electricity needs after years of delays tied to disputed city fees.
Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave., completed the $290,000 installation in mid-February. The 102 solar panels cover two of the church’s three flat roofs and began generating power that month.
“It was a long process to get these on,” Pastor Nancy Goede said. “It provides all of the electricity that we need to power the building, and there’s a possibility of selling excess electricity to ComEd.”
The church’s push for a green transition got off the ground in 2023, when it was awarded a $250,000 grant through the city’s Climate Infrastructure Fund.
But that funding was delayed after the church failed the city’s scofflaw check, a city review used to identify unpaid debts. Goede said the issue stemmed from invoices the church missed after the city switched from paper billing to electronic notices.
Some of those notices were sent to another Augustana congregation in Chicago, she said, while others involved older permits later determined to be tied to nearby properties owned by the University of Chicago, not the church.
“We hadn’t seen (some bills), so that money we did owe,” Goede said. “There were also three older permits that were for buildings on the university campus. There were permits for signs for their loading docks.”
After city officials reviewed the records, Augustana received a $6,400 refund for fees that had been incorrectly assigned to the church, Goede said.
Even with the grant, delays and rising costs forced the congregation to contribute more than $40,000 toward the project, according to Goede. The original cost estimate was about $233,000.
Augustana’s new solar panels are expected to lower utility costs while reducing the church’s environmental footprint.
The installation comes as recent federal policy changes create new uncertainty for the solar industry. A July law signed by President Donald Trump ended a residential clean-energy tax credit after Dec. 31, 2025, and tightened timelines for some larger projects, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Recent reporting by The New York Times also found canceled projects, layoffs and shifting investment strategies across parts of the clean-energy sector.
For Goede, the church’s project carries symbolic value beyond lower electric bills.
“The real importance for us is that the U.S. is currently trying to reverse course and go backwards and towards a reliance on fossil fuels again,” Goede said. “What we want to say in doing this is that we intend to go forward in that we want to move in the direction of sustainable energy.”
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Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 45F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph..
Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 45F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: April 24, 2026 @ 3:51 pm
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