Calendar of Events

This presentation is a project management case study documenting how Fairmount Presbyterian Church took a rooftop solar initiative from an initial idea to a fully operational, financially successful system. It traces a 10+ year business-case journey — beginning with the church's 2011 Earth Care Congregation certification and years of stakeholder resistance — through the December 2023 breakthrough driven by rising energy costs, improved technology, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentive. It then walks through planning, requirements, procurement, risk management, communications, execution, and financial results.

Project Outcome: A 66-panel, 2-inverter grid-tied system, activated July 3, 2025, delivered ahead of schedule (8 vs. 10 planned days) and exactly on budget ($115,561).

Financials: A $34,500 IRA rebate was secured in June 2026, with funding split across donations, the rebate, and church investment repaid via electricity cost avoidance.

Notable thread: An AI-assisted benchmarking effort located a peer church (Vashon United Methodist, WA) for knowledge transfer on navigating the complex IRA rebate filing.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Build a durable business case — how to sustain and eventually win approval for a long-horizon capital project against persistent resistance.
• Manage stakeholders and external factors — identifying all parties, reconciling conflicting requirements, and navigating politics and environmental constraints.
• Run disciplined procurement and risk management — multi-criteria vendor evaluation, due diligence, and structured risk mitigation.
• Plan finances and manage federal incentives — funding-mix strategy plus the mechanics and hidden dependencies of securing the IRA rebate (ID.me credentials, tax forms, professional filing).
• Communicate strategically — tiered messaging and reframing the narrative from "cost savings" to cost avoidance."
• Capture lessons learned — documenting success factors and identifying future opportunities like battery storage.

Speakers