1st Light Energy | Non Profit

Could your nonprofit benefit from a little more padding in your bank account?

From increased operating expenses to fewer donations, nonprofits around the country are constantly looking for ways to earn extra funding for their much-needed programs while cutting the costs of doing business.

Because even though nonprofits continually reinvest their earnings to their various programs, they still have to fork over the cash to pay for traditional for-profit business expenses like payroll, rent, and utilities.

While you may not be able to control many of these expenses, you can take control of your nonprofit’s electricity bills by switching to solar energy.

You may be wondering if it’s really a smart idea to have your nonprofit spend money to install solar panels on your property. You may also be worrying that investment will only drain the coffers and not make your donors happy.

To give you all the information you and your board members need to make an informed decision about switching to solar, today we’re going to talk about all the reasons solar energy is perfect for nonprofits. Read more →

Congratulations to the entire St. Benedict school team for successfully completing this large-scale project on extremely short notice! In mid-November the approved installer decided the job was too much to handle and bowed out. Cathy Warshaw, Business Manager at St. Benedict’s, called 1st Light Energy to see if we could complete the job before February 25th, and our team went into action. According to Fred Rhodes, VP of Operations, “everyone on the team worked long hours and overcame many obstacles to get the job done!” Cathy was full of compliments and praise for the quick turnaround, “you did anything it took to get the job done by the deadline”, thus saving her organization about $100K in SREC awards from Jersey City Power & Light (JCP&L).

The system is 255KW (910 panels for the rooftop and ground-mount combination) and will immediately reduce their electric rate from $0.15/KWh to $.09/KWh. These savings will increase significantly throughout the life of the system. In order to meet the tight deadline, the key issues were:

1. New installation drawings (from scratch – reengineering) and new Civil Engineering approval
2. New School roof – approved roofer to put 300 mounting points on a PVC roof (good thing for warm weather) – during Christmas vacation
3. Long lead time for a state-of-the-art ground mount system (ground screws vs. drilling in a concrete post) – arrived last Friday 
4. Township approvals – tree commission, major zoning variance through the Committee, permits, etc.
5. New switchgear for their electrical system to accommodate the increased load from the system

Read more in this article http://matawan-aberdeen.patch.com/articles/st-benedict-s-solar-panel-project. Again, congratulations to all who made this happen.

Holmdel, NJ

3 Reasons Why Every Nonprofit Needs to Consider Switching to Solar Energy

St. Benedict School