In Kyiv, 98 solar panels with a capacity of 53 kW were installed on the roof of the Catholic church in Poznyaki.
This is the first church in the Kyiv-Zhytomyr eparchy to install a SES, rector Mateusz Adamski told EcoPolitic.
He noted that the solar panels were installed at the end of December 2022 thanks to the help of the charitable religious foundation of Germany and the Vatican. In January, it produced 419 kW of energy, and in the first 5 days of February - 125 kW. This is due to the increase in the length of the daylight hours.
Adamski said that currently all the energy is consumed by the building itself, where, in addition to the church, the radio station "Radio Maria" and the residential wing of the priests are located.
"We hope to sign the law on Net Billing and plan to improve the system," said the priest.
He explained that after the modernization of this experimental SES, including the replacement of inverters and the installation of optimizers, it will be able to produce up to 40 kW, while the building consumes about 30 kW during peak hours. Therefore, they plan to "collect" excess energy on the organization's personal account in order to use it in the winter period
Adamski added that thanks to the optimizers, the connected panels will be able to produce the maximum amount of energy independently of each other. In addition, it will increase fire safety, simplify monitoring and maintenance of panels.
"We have installed 98 panels, 90 – on the two flat roofs of the temple, and another 8 panels – on the roof of the garage according to the system from east to west. The middle part of the roof shades certain panels during the day. Therefore, it is very important for us to install this equipment," said the abbot, adding that the cost of the optimizers reaches €5,000, and the modernization will also require the replacement of inverters.
He also said that the church building is quite new and was built with energy-efficient technologies in mind. For example, it has a geothermal heating system.
"When I was appointed rector, I started researching energy efficiency and looking for "holes" through which we lose money," said Adamski.
So in the church, the part of the building where the construction is going on was tightly closed and insulated in order not to lose heat. They also plan to increase the layer of insulation from the existing 10 cm to 40 cm. And after the modernization of the SES - to switch to a night tariff for electricity consumption.
Among other eco-initiatives, the church also launched waste sorting, in particular plastic and paper. This happened at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, when the church was accepting displaced people and receiving humanitarian aid.
"There were a lot of different boxes and we found paper receivers," said the priest.
Currently, paper and plastic are collected separately in the utility room, and when a sufficient amount is collected, the receiver comes and takes everything away.
"Previously, two garbage cans were filled once a week, and after the start of sorting, the garbage truck has to be called once every 3-4 weeks. We save money on garbage removal, and receivers also pay us for paper and plastic," said Adamski.
The church community also takes care of the cleanliness of the shore of the Silver Circle lake, near which it is located. And for the Christmas holidays, they installed a live Christmas tree of a special variety, which was already planted near the lake.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the Kyiv community received green humanitarian aid, namely two unique solar power plants from the leading French manufacturer of photovoltaic panels, Roy Group Energy.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, Pope Francis called on all believers and public leaders to care for the environment and fight climate change.
