African Methodist Episcopal network to install microgrids at Georgia churches

The Georgia network of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches announced it will install microgrids in five churches across the state this year, and hopes to eventually install microgrids in all 482 of the AME churches in Georgia.

The microgrids are part of a clean energy program in which the AME Church Sixth District, the district that includes Georgia’s AME churches, will install other green tech updates to churches, like solar panels, EV charging stations, battery storage, and bidirectional charging. In a press release, the Sixth District said these updates will allow “church facilities to serve as energy hubs” for members to “charge medical equipment, store medicines, and seek shelter in an emergency.”

“Churches are critical partners in the clean energy transition,” Alicia Brown, the director of Georgia Bright, a Solar for All recipient and partner of the Sixth District, said in a press release. “When the community has a need or a disaster strikes, [churches] are often the first organizations to step up and offer help.”

The program aligns with the AME church network’s 2016 Climate Change Resolution, in which the church’s government committed to “take action and promote solutions that will help our families and communities save money by making our congregations, homes, buildings, and transportation more energy efficient and that reduce the pollution that is damaging our climate.”

“This initiative is a testament to our dedication to caring for God’s creation and serving our communities,” Bishop Michael Leon Mitchell, who presides over the Sixth District, said in the release. “By embracing clean energy technologies, we’re reducing our environmental impact and bringing cutting-edge solutions to African American communities through the church.”

And AME isn’t the only church to connect the climate crisis to its “responsibility to care” for the planet. Many churches have taken advantage of federal clean energy tax credits made available to non-taxable entities—like churches, mosques, and synagogues—through the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Faith and action are inseparable,” AME Reverend William E. Thomas Jr. said. “By embracing clean energy, we’re securing a sustainable future for our communities and stepping up to take care of God’s creation.”