U.S. Catholic: The Republican Episcopalian helping the Catholic Church go solar

Solar industry maverick Page Gravely works to make clean energy accessible to churches—despite political obstacles.

Excerpt from U.S. Catholic, by Rebecca Randall

The solar industry faces headwinds this year, due to the policy changes from President Donald Trump. But Page Gravely, whose team developed Catholic Energies alongside Catholic Climate Covenant, is certain he’s bet on the right dog in the fight. Clean energy will continue to grow for economic reasons. “The solar train has left the station a long time ago; there’s no turning back. It may slow a bit,” he says. But the storm will pass…

Before Catholic Energies, Gravely and his business partner, Dan Last, worked together helping building owners seek LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. An acquaintance, Dan Misleh, the founder of Catholic Climate Covenant, asked for their insight on how to support Catholic organizations following Pope Francis’ call to action in Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home). They landed on exploring how to facilitate a solar transition. Gravely and Last consulted pro bono, wanting to develop new professional pathways for themselves as well. The test run was a five-acre property in Washington, D.C., owned by Catholic Charities…

When completed in 2019, the ground solar array—5,000 solar panels—was the largest the nation’s capital had seen and generated a year’s worth of power for 260 homes.

From there, Mission Energy was formed, and Catholic Energies became a partnership project of Catholic Climate Covenant. Almost all the initial projects at Mission Energy were generated by the media coverage. The demand has remained consistent ever since.

Early on, they decided to put mission in their name—broadening their clientele to provide solar development for nonprofits across the country. Catholic organizations, however, make up about 85 percent of its business. “Catholics own a lot of real estate, and solar can absolutely benefit that real estate,” Gravely says. Many of the company’s other clients embrace a strong mission that goes beyond financial motivation—this also inspires Gravely to press on, fueled by the faith of his clientele.

Read the full article here: https://uscatholic.org/articles/202602/the-republican-episcopalian-helping-the-catholic-church-go-solar/