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NEW SOLAR POWER INITIATIVE
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Subiaco is a Benedictine abbey in the Swiss-American Congregation founded in 1878 and located in Subiaco, Arkansas, USA. We have thirty-three solemnly professed monks and two men in our monastic formation program. The primary task of every monk is faithfulness to the daily Opus Dei (Work of God) involving communal prayer, individual prayer, Holy Mass, and Lectio Divina. By living in a monastery and following the ancient Rule of St. Benedict, the monk must also fulfill his “common life” obligations to the weekly liturgical schedule, the monthly dishwashing schedule, and the regular house cleaning schedule. After these primary duties, our abbot may also assign a monk to one of the numerous ministries undertaken at Subiaco. These include service in our internationally famous, all-boys, college-prep Academy of day and boarding students from 7th-12th grades, our Coury House Retreat Center, our parochial ministries at neighboring Catholic parishes, our monastic enterprises featuring such items as peanut brittle, soaps, and hot sauce, our ministry of prayer, as well as the management and care of our nearly 2,000 acres of land.
In accordance with the Rule of St. Benedict, which Benedictine monks follow, every monastery's goal is to be as self-sufficient as possible. The monks in 1946 began an ambitious project to create three lakes in between two ridges on our property. That transformational project over 70 years ago now provides 300 million gallons of continuous water for the abbey and the surrounding city. Today, the monks of Subiaco are about to venture into another transformational renewable energy project to provide for the electrical needs of our abbey and its ministries through solar power.
Pope Francis reminded us in his encyclical Laudate Si' issued in 2015 that:
It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an ‘ecological conversion,’ whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.
His words merely echo those of previous popes who have reminded us that care of creation and the protection of life go hand-in-hand. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote: "How can we separate, or even set at odds, the protection of the environment and the protection of human life, including the life of the unborn?" Pope Saint John Paul II reminded the world of the same reality when he wrote: "The most profound and serious indication of the moral implications underlying the ecological problem is the lack of respect for life evident in many of the patterns of environmental pollution."
On the 4th day of October 2023, on the 8th anniversary of Laudate Si', Pope Francis called us to an even deeper commitment to sustainability, integral ecology, care of creation, and a commitment to life: He wrote in his new encyclical Laudate Deum:
Despite the many negotiations and agreements, global emissions continue to increase. Certainly, it could be said that, without those agreements, they would have increased even more. Still, in other themes related to the environment, when there was a will, very significant results were obtained, as was the case with the protection of the ozone layer. Yet, the necessary transition towards clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed. Consequently, whatever is being done risks being seen only as a ploy to distract attention.
As Benedictine monastics, we are now stepping forward like our brother and sister monastics worldwide to take up this challenge by our Holy Father, Pope Francis. We will do our part to be wise and prudent stewards of the land to which God has entrusted us. Arkansas is known as the "Natural State," so we are proud to be an Arkansas monastery, investing in an Arkansas renewable energy project, contracting with an Arkansas sustainable energy company (Entegrity), that will further bring jobs to Arkansans.
Journey with us as we monastics step out in faith to praise God and to be the good stewards of the land entrusted to us here in Arkansas. In the words of our Holy Father Saint Benedict from his Rule for monastics: may we prefer nothing to Christ and may He lead us all together to everlasting life. Amen!
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Since the founding of our monastery in 1878, our goal has been to become self-sustaining, as Saint Benedict envisioned for his monks 1,500 years ago. Consistent with this, over the years our monastery has undertaken water management by building three lakes that provide water for our monastery and the neighboring city; hog production; gardening; a vineyard; dairy production; a cattle farm; and numerous other ventures. Some of these sustainability efforts have been successful, while others have ceased operation. In recent years, we have switched to LED lighting, replaced our inefficient high pressure steam boilers with smaller efficient units for our heating needs, timber management of our land, engaged in an ongoing recycling program, and now will use solar power for our electrical needs. We researched wind management and solar power but found that our location and availability of land with continuous sunlight would allow solar to be the most viable option. To that end, we began exploring solar power more diligently in the past two years by forming a Solar Committee of people knowledgable in technology, electricity, engineering, land management, and finance. Under our Procurator's leadership, we also explored solar power projects already in operation nationwide to gauge the long-term value and return on investment in those projects. It has only been in recent months that government incentives and an advancement in technology have allowed us a payback that makes this project ecologically sound and cost-productive for our monastery.
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No. Monasteries worldwide have already invested heavily in renewable energy alternatives over the past two decades, with most choosing solar energy. Unlike some segments of America that view solar power only politically or ideologically, monasteries have shown for over twenty years that solar power is a viable and clean alternative to petroleum and provides a suitable return on investment.
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Subiaco's project is privately funded at $2.7 million. This project also hopes to avail itself of rebates, federal tax credits, and incentives available in the Inflation Reduction Act. Over 30 years, the estimated electrical bill savings will reach $5,927,591, with a payback period of 9.8 years.
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The facility will be located on 6.45 acres of abbey land northwest of our Subiaco Academy football field. This would be west of Highway 197 at the coordinates 35°18'10.5"N 93°38'10.7"W. We explored various areas of our total abbey land, and this proved to be the more viable and cost-effective.
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This Solar Tracking Array is projected to produce an annual energy output of 2,247,925 kilowatt-hours (kWh). Thus, 94.8% of the electrical needs of Subiaco will be provided by the new solar facility.
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2,784 modules at 450 watt per module.
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A tracking system follows the sun's arc through the sky each day and maximizes energy production in all seasons. Tracking arrays are more complex, but tracking systems actually cost less than fixed due to the reduced amount of panels needed. Tracking arrays also have a smaller footprint thus requiring less land. This adds a bit of cost and complexity to the array but the 15% of added energy production increases the systems cash flow over time and brings more savings to Subiaco.
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Our US-made solar modules have a 30-year warranty and will continue to produce power after this warranty expires. We model system financials in line with this 30-year warranty but expect these systems to continue to be productive long into the future. At some point, the original solar modules will degrade far enough to be replaced by the newest and most efficient modules on the market at that time – reusing the racking and electrical infrastructure put in place for the original installation. This continues to bring lower electrical costs for Subiaco far into the future with less capital input as the system ages.
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Solar modules are tested to hail resistance as part of their UL listing. Modern modules are very resistant to hail but at some point the tempered glass on the front of the module can shatter due to impact from very large hail stones. Once shattered this module needs to be replaced with a module of similar size and electrical characteristics. All entities need to carry current insurance on their solar powerplants and then this insurance is used to replace the broken modules in an array. Subiaco has included the estimated insurance cost in our financial models for the project since it will be an ongoing cost for the client.
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Subiaco Academy is a mission of Subiaco Abbey. Our Academy is an internationally famous college-prep day and boarding school for boys in grades 7-12. Our Academy has invested heavily in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) through a renovated Alumni Hall school building and dedicated staff to mentor and form our students in state-of-the-art facilities and classes. Partnering with Entegrity, our new Solar Power facility will allow our students to have hands-on learning with cutting-edge technology rarely afforded to high school students. Our abbey also hopes to partner with Solar International, a leading solar training and renewable energy education organization, to allow our students and community an opportunity to interact with our solar facility and learn about renewable technology in real-time.
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Hundreds of monasteries and religious communities worldwide have successfully invested in renewable energy over the past twenty years as part of our care of creation. Some examples from monasteries in North America that undertook solar projects include:
- St. John's Abbey (Collegeville, MN) Solar Project begun in 2009
- Holy Wisdom Monastery (Madison, WI) Solar Project begun in 2010
- Mt. St. Mary's Abbey (Wrentham, MA) Solar, Geothermal, and Wind begun in 2013
- St. Joseph Abbey (Spencer, MA) Solar Project begun in 2016
- St. Peter's Abbey (Meunster, Canada) Solar Project begun in 2021
- St. Meinrad Archabbey (St. Meinrad, IN) Solar Project and LED transition begun in 2021
- St. Mary's Monastery (Rock Island, IL) Solar Project begun in 2021
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Subiaco contacted several companies to explore the options for partnering in this endeavor. Entegrity stood out because they were a firm with over 350 projects completed and over 45 years of experience in this field of sustainable energy. After contacting the leadership of previous projects completed by Entegrity, Abbot Elijah and the Monastic Chapter made the final decision and noted, "From day one in a meeting with Elston and Flint, we could easily see how this was truly a firm of integrity. We monks are cautious in doing business only with those we know will maintain our values and understand the mission to which God has entrusted us. We are proud to partner with Entegrity in this truly transformational project for our Abbey, Academy, County, and State."
To learn more about Entegrity Partners, then click HERE.
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Laudato Si’ (“Praise be to you”) is the second encyclical of Pope Francis. The encyclical has the subtitle On Care for Our Common Home and was published in 2015, addressed to “every person living on this planet.” (LS 3) Pope Francis describes the encyclical as “a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet,” calling upon the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to join him in embarking on a new journey to integral ecology. You can read that encyclical by clicking HERE.
Laudate Deum (“Praise God”) is the third encyclical of Pope Francis and is meant to address what Francis in the document calls the “global social issue” of climate change. The pope said that in the eight years since Laudato Si’ was published, “our responses have not been adequate” to address ongoing ecological concerns. You can read that encyclical by clicking HERE.
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For more information in Arkansas and our region, you may contact Entegrity Partners (click for their website), through Elston Blake Forte, Entegrity Business Development Executive, LEED Green Associate; 479.225.7774 or [email protected]
For more information about how the Catholic Church is undertaking projects in renewable energy across America, your may click HERE.
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