The Diocese of East Tennessee's headquarters building is in Knoxville. Photo: Andrew Morehead
[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of East Tennessee wants to reduce electricity bills to zero at its diocesan headquarters in Knoxville. It is estimated that installing rooftop solar panels will save $8,000 per year, and there are plans to advance these savings by investing in other energy efficiency projects in the diocese.
“God has told us that we are the stewards of this creation and that we are to care for it,” Brother Andrew Morehead, the diocesan missionary for communications and evangelism, told Episcopal News Service. “We must be able to take the things we have and the tools we have to best serve God’s creation, and then put them to good use.”
Some of these tools are quite common. The diocese, for example, has already replaced less efficient light bulbs with LEDs in its offices. Motion sensors were also installed so lights turn off automatically when people leave rooms, and the HVAC system was converted to “smart” controls.
And at a time when many dioceses and parishes across the Episcopal Church are using solar energy to meet church-wide conservation goals, East Tennessee is launching its first solar project in hopes that it will inspire similar initiatives throughout the diocese.
The original inspiration came from the 80th General Assembly, which in 2022 committed the church to “commit to the goal of net carbon neutrality in its operations and the work of its staff, standing commissions, interim bodies and the General Assembly by 2030.”
The resolution also encouraged bishops at the local and diocesan levels to work toward the same goal “through a combination of reducing emissions from travel, reducing energy consumption, increasing energy efficiency in buildings, and purchasing offsets from properly studied, responsible and ethical partners.”
In 2024, members of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Knoxville proposed a resolution at the East Tennessee Diocesan Convention to respond to the General Convention's encouragement, and the diocese agreed to form a task force to lead efforts to support carbon neutrality.
At the diocesan headquarters, which sits on property next to an Episcopal school, “we did as much as we could with the building itself” to improve its energy efficiency, Morehead said. Diocesan leaders began exploring renewable energy options with the support of Bishop Brian Cole. They hired the company Solar Alliance to evaluate the diocesan building and determine what was possible there.
Solar Alliance created a plan to create a 44-kilowatt system of 83 rooftop solar panels and a 30-kilowatt backup battery for $163,000. That would be enough power to meet the building's electricity usage while storing excess power in the battery for use on cloudy days, at night, or during outages.
The diocese is moving forward with the project and hopes to have the solar panels online within the next month. After that, it will take about 15 years for the energy savings to match the project's investment costs.
East Tennessee is not financing the project by taking out a loan. Instead, it draws cash from a reserve fund so it can realize immediate savings from solar power — and use those savings to advance energy efficiency efforts in its communities, particularly those with fewer than 75 people on an average Sunday.
Communities can make a difference through simple upgrades like LED lights and motion sensors, Morehead said. Some may also be interested in exploring solar options for their own buildings.
“Part of this project was that we as diocesan leadership … had experience in this area to give them the knowledge,” he said. Solar energy “has its own subtleties.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.