St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Los Osos joined more than 500 nonprofit organizations on SunDay, Sept. 21, to celebrate recently installed solar panels and the power of clean energy.
As part of the day of action, St. Benedict’s priest, Linzi Stahlecker, blessed the solar panels as community members gathered at the church to take photos and praise the sun, while 450 other events took place simultaneously across the United States.
The church decided to install solar panels to demonstrate their good stewardship, according to Don Maruska, longtime member of St. Benedict’s and member of the church’s EarthCare group. Also part of the Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) organization, St. Benedict’s strives to address climate change within.
“Good stewardship involves walking lightly on the earth, if you will, having our impact be as appropriate as possible,” Maruska said. “As bleak as circumstances may be, to take these actions and like with Sunday, last Sunday a national and international event, it was really highlighting that the reality is that solar energy now is not only cleaner, but it is less expensive than other ways of generating electricity.”
St. Benedict’s panels were installed last December. The church will save $137,000 on electrical bills over the lifetime of the project and avoid pumping 449,000 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere, according to RE-volv, a clean energy access organization that helped St. Benedict’s bring solar energy to the church.
The installation took about a year because PG&E didn’t initially approve the project as the church needed a new roof before applying the solar panels, according to Michael Lucas, a longtime church member and Cal Poly architecture professor.
Lucas volunteered his architecture services to consult on the project and said the new roof should last more than 20 years.
While the solar project was underway, St. Benedict’s found other ways to be mindful of the environment, Maruska said, by no longer using disposable items during their events, using their water heater only when necessary, planting trees around the church, and more.
The church has a collective attitude about trying to be conscious about how its members are existing as entities in the environment, according to Lucas. However, financially, the church couldn’t support the project until it found out about tax credits offered for solar projects under the Biden administration.
The church didn’t qualify for the credits because it is a religious organization, so RE-volv stepped in to help. RE-volv helps nonprofits—with an initiative specifically for churches—form companies so they can qualify for the tax credits, Lucas said.
“I think it’s critically important that community groups of all types, and I think faith-based groups in particular, have a role and a responsibility to demonstrate good stewardship at a time when the federal government is creating all kinds of resistance to addressing the reality of climate change and to efforts to take action,” Maruska said. “It really is incumbent on us to do what we can, where we are and how we can.”
Fast fact
• Cancer Support Community California Central Coast will host its fourth annual walk for cancer which will take place on Oct. 26 to raise money for breast cancer awareness. The money will go directly to those impacted by cancer in SLO County. Participants will walk for about 2 miles through Santa Margarita Ranch, and at the finish, they will find an assortment of food trucks, music and wine from Ancient Peaks Winery. The walk begins at 10 a.m. with food trucks opening around 11. To find more information, visit classy.org/event/2025-walk-for-cancer/e712352. ∆
Reach Intern Bella Cox at ntintern@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 2 – 12, 2025.
WOW! That was a great article, especially
Because it was about climate change, solar panels and the environment .
Thank you