As the sun crept up and over the Wasatch Front early Tuesday morning, its rays not only fell on a new LDS Church meetinghouse in Farmington but also powered it.
Featuring 158 panels mounted over about a third of the area of the soon-to-be-opened stake center's south roof, the solar power system is one of several innovative uses of energy-efficient technology in its construction processes and utility operations being tested by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Helping to unveil the first-ever solar powered LDS meetinghouse in North America to the media were two members of the church's Presiding Bishopric — Presiding Bishop H. David Burton and Bishop Richard C. Edgley, first counselor.
Solar power was installed in 2007 at a new meetinghouse in Tamotu, Tahiti.
Estimates suggest the solar panel systems should generate enough electricity to power the structure, resulting in a projected annual energy savings of $6,000.
"Today, the solar panels are the story, aren't they?" said Bishop Burton, listing the environmentally friendly contributions of other building elements, ranging from high-efficiency heating and cooling systems to landscaping designs and building layout.
Four other buildings following the prototype design are being constructed, including a second Utah meetinghouse in Eagle Mountain. The others are located in the Southwest — in Apache Junction, Ariz.; Logandale, Nev.; and Pahrump, Nev.
Crazy Liberal Hippies!
-Bob
2 comments:
Wouldn't this be considered a good thing? Why should "hippies" be the only ones to use sustainable energy sources? And should ecologically friendly buildings be a liberal idea only?
Just curious.
There's a large amount of sarcasm in the title of this post.
But, if you ask people involved in the GOP, many will tell you that people looking out for the environment are a bunch of liberal hippies.
Plus, I'd like to point out that the LDS Church is more liberal than the Utah GOP.
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