Stafford Parish in Brisbane is soaking in the sun with its newly-installed solar panels, set to cut power bills by 90 per cent over their lifetime, and Fr Joe McKay OFM says the timing could not have been better in the lead-up to Laudato Si’ Week, reports The Catholic Leader.
“For me, Laudato Si’ is all about doing things that encourage our love of God’s creation and doing things that make a real, tangible difference,” the Franciscan priest said.
Fr Joe McKay OFM with some of the battery hardware used to read the solar panels. (PHOTO: Catholic Leader)
Fr McKay said Stafford parish’s Care for Creation committee had done an excellent job, under the guidance of former parish priest Fr Denis Scanlan, in getting the solar panels installed.
“This committee here is not a little talk group, they make a difference here in the parish and the community around us,” he said.
Fr McKay said the solar panels were a major investment for the parish.
“It’s set up so it covers all the church, the presbytery, our offices, and the convent, which has 10 people living in there at the moment – fridges and everything,” he said.
Until the first rainy day of the month, in mid-May, he said they had taken virtually nothing from the grid.
The investment is part of the parish’s commitment to “living Laudato Si’”.
The parish Care for Creation team began researching a solar solution to their energy needs in late 2022.
The project had three aims:
1. To bring the parish into line with the Church’s stated position on embracing renewable and environmentally sustainable sources of energy.
2. To use ethically sourced and environmentally sustainable materials, produced with low carbon emissions and created in a circular economy mode.
3. To reduce the Parish’s reliance on the public electricity grid
The research took 12 months and during that time the team were pleased to discover many green energy companies in Queensland embracing the United Nations Environment, Social and Governance Sustainable Development Goals.
The team selected three Australian companies who provided extensive education and consultation.
By July 2023 the companies provided their solar solutions for the parish energy needs.
The installation of the solar panels began in October 2023.
Due to wet weather and supply hold-ups, the progress was slow and was not ready for use until May of this year.
The innovative design of the batteries was particularly appealing to the Care for Creation team as it predominantly used graphene over lithium.
Lithium is a mined resource whereas graphene is an incredibly strong compound made from waste products like used plastics and tyres, and bio waste such as sugar cane crop remainders.
The batteries did not have the overheating problems that have been known to lithium; there was no mining required for the resources and they would be recyclable upon end of life.
Fr McKay said he hoped the success of Stafford’s Care for Creation team might encourage other parishes to investigate their own sustainable energy solutions.
Laudato Si’ Week runs from May 19-26 and aims to encourage people to listen to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth, as outlined in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’.
This article by Joe Higgins was published in The Catholic Leader.