The Prince Edward Island (PEI) government has released a new grant program called Community Energy Solutions for small businesses and non-profit groups. The great news is that faith communities in the province qualify for this grant.

To start off, the grant includes a FREE energy audit, which will help you develop an appropriate plan that makes sense for your faith community from a financial as well as an energy efficiency perspective. 

Once you get the report from your free energy audit, the Community Energy Solutions Program may cover 1x your annual energy savings, 50% of the cost of your energy efficiency project, or $25,000, whichever of the three is less. 

Applying for this grant does not impact your eligibility for other grants offered by efficiencyPEI. You remain eligible for the Business Energy Rebates and the Solar Electric Rebates.

Why Apply?

Incentives like these can help you reduce your overall operational costs by lowering your energy bills, as well as reducing your building’s carbon footprint. Consider passive strategies first, such as air sealing and insulation, as once these are installed and upgraded, your savings will continue on for years without any maintenance or activities. An easy action for most faith communities that saves money is to ensure you have LED lights throughout the entire building, inside and outside. If you are up on a ladder, consider improving ceiling fans to Energy Star new ones, so that they can push the heated, conditioned air back down, reducing the number of times the heat has to come on. Appliances can be a huge energy-sucking source, especially old fridges and freezers in your building. Upgrading your old appliance will typically pay for itself in a few months with a new Energy Star rated unit. Finally, you can also upgrade your heating system and hot water tanks from oil to air source heat pumps, and high efficiency electric.

Please click on the link to contact efficiencyPEI to get more information and to start your energy saving, operational cost savings, and planet saving plan now!

United Church Congregations: Save more! 

Congregations with the United Church of Canada (UCC) can use the Community Energy Solutions grant to access even more energy efficiency funds from UCC’s Faithful Footprints Grant program, making energy efficiency projects very cost effective. 

Outside of PEI, and not a United Church Congregation? 

For faith communities who are outside of the grant area or are not United Church congregations, but wish to become more energy efficient in their places of worship, Faith & the Common Good is here to help. We have many useful resources available on our website including our Energy Star Action Workbook for Congregations and our DIY Faith Building Energy Audit Guide. As well, we offer a Virtual Green Audit. This is an adaptation by our Building Audit Manager, Stephen Collette, of our in-person, regular Green Audit to an online version.

The Virtual Green Audit also benefits those faith communities who may not be able to afford the Green Audit, or who are located at too great a distance from our expert. Guided by our DIY Walkthrough Audit, Stephen will connect with applicants via video conferencing and with the applicant walking around the building, he will highlight opportunities for energy savings, carbon reductions, water reductions, operational efficiencies, and better bottom line. The fee for this service is $100.00 per hour.

For more information about any of the grants and opportunities shared in this article, contact Stephen directly at 705-930-1011 (EST) or email [email protected].