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Evanston’s faith organizations have been getting on board with solar energy. The Unitarian Church, Northminster Presbyterian and Immanuel Lutheran are among those that have installed rooftop solar over the last two years. But while some may have locations, buildings and finances that make it feasible to invest in rooftop panels, many don’t. For them, community solar may be the answer.
Beth Emet the Free Synagogue has nearly two years of experience with community solar now behind them, and Chris Wynn, a member of the congregation’s green team, is convinced it’s worth the minor amount of extra paperwork it takes to subscribe.
Beth Emet’s busy sanctuary at Ridge and Dempster, in addition to serving as a house of worship, hosts a preschool, a soup kitchen and numerous events. “There’s always something going on,” Wynn says, which means electricity costs are high.
A few years ago, with the encouragement of recently retired Rabbi Andrea London, Wynn took the lead in investigating the feasibility of installing rooftop solar panels. To her disappointment, the final step, a stress test of the roof, led to the conclusion that this wasn’t an option.
But even as they were studying that possibility, Wynn had begun to gather data about a different option: community solar. As it happened, not long before, she’d listened to a presentation about community solar by local advocate Hal Sprague, sponsored by Citizens’ Greener Evanston (now Climate Action Evanston). She decided to subscribe at home, and in 2021 began keeping track of costs and benefits.
“It’s kind of a complicated thing to explain,” Wynn says. But by tracking her electricity bills for a year, she was able to show the temple how it works.
T. Manning, who’s followed in Sprague’s footsteps as a renewable energy advocate with Climate Action Evanston, describes community solar this way: “It’s solar without panels — the free, quick, and easy way to switch to solar-generated electricity.”
There are panels collecting energy from the sun somewhere, of course. But instead of owning and maintaining the panels yourself, you support a solar farm where the panels generate electricity for the grid. You don’t buy electrons from that farm, but you get credit for the production of them, which is reflected on your ComEd bill.
You don’t need to own your own home (or building) to be a subscriber, and you can even live in an apartment. As long as you’re a ComEd customer, it’s an option.
You continue paying ComEd, which maintains the grid that delivers electricity and provides any additional electricity you need. But you have a second bill from the operator of the solar farm. The solar energy you’re paying for on your second bill then shows up as a credit on your ComEd bill.
It all works out to save you money overall. The reason: community solar suppliers generally offer a discount of 10% to 20% on the cost per kilowatt-hour for the electricity generated by the solar farm.
The savings may not add up to a lot — in Wynn’s case, 10% and 13% every year (maybe the equivalent of a cup of coffee a week, Manning suggests). But Wynn said, “the bigger thing is the kilowatt hours that you’re able to generate from clean energy and put into the grid.”
For a typical single-family home, that might be roughly the same as taking a gas-powered car off the road. And then there’s the gratification that comes from knowing your subscription is supporting the production of 100% clean and renewable electricity.
Wynn’s presentation convinced the temple to move forward, and in 2024 she worked with Solstice to sign them up with a solar farm. To meet the bulk of their annual electricity needs (500,000 kilowatt-hours), they soon had to add a second, then a third, farm. All three are located about two hours to the west.
Now, with one full year of data from the first two farms, she’s crunched the numbers and found that the temple paid 17.8% less for their electricity supply than they had before they made the switch. That’s a lot of savings because their electricity use is so high, she notes.
But more important: Their share of the production of those two farms was 443,000 kilowatt-hours — “the same as taking 44 cars off the road.”
The science is clear: Burning fossil fuels is making heat waves worse. But in spite of the lack of federal government support for a clean energy transition under the current administration, renewables continue to expand. In May, for the first time, solar provided a bigger share of electricity in the United States than coal.
Beth Emet’s shift to renewable energy helps fulfill the mission of their green team (also referred to as their Dayenu Circle): “to address climate change based on Jewish values through education, sustainability, and advocacy.” The team also runs a soup kitchen, where they compost food waste and are working to eliminate single-use plastics.
They’re also active participants in Interfaith Action of Evanston. As it happens, Hal Sprague’s church, First Congregational Church of Evanston, one of the founding members of Interfaith Action, signed up for community solar (with his encouragement) in 2021. He and Wynn both hope that interest in community solar will continue to grow.
She recommends the Citizens Utility Board as a source of information about community solar and suppliers.
You can also stop by Climate Action Evanston monthly sessions at the main Evanston Public Library if you want to chat with Manning or another coach about saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at home. Their free one-on-one coaching sessions take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month. The next session is Aug. 12.
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Environment Editor Wendy Pollock, now a steward of the Ladd Arboretum, worked for three decades in the science museum field and served as co-chair of the Evanston Environment Board. More by Wendy Pollock
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