power your jewish facility with clean, renewable solar energy
“Wouldn't it be great if your non-profit Jewish facility (synagogue,
JCC, Jewish Federation, Hillel, Jewish Day School, Jewish retirement home,
etc) was powered with clean, renewable solar energy?”
OF COURSE IT WOULD BE GREAT!
except . . .
What about the capital cost? What about the operation and maintenance of the solar system? Insurance? Solar rebates? Building permits? Utility interconnect agreements?
Your facility has enough going on just focusing on its core-mission: providing a sacred and communal space for vibrant Jewish life.
That is why we developed JSFI.
JFSI's program is designed to overcome the financial and operational obstacles that prevent Jewish facilities from using clean and renewable solar power. JFSI affords Jewish organizations the ability to derive many of the benefits of solar power, furthering Tikkun Olam and setting an example for the community, without the hassles of raising lots of capital, owning and operating a solar system.
If you are interested in finding out if JFSI can help
your facility "go solar" then please find out if your facility
qualifies and/or contact JFSI: all we need is
a description of your facility and some basic information from your utility
bills (click here for more information about the types
of facilities we are looking for). We will take it from there...
SHORT AND SWEET...
JFSI partners with Jewish organizations that are motivated to secure a morally and financially responsible source of energy for their facilities.
If your facility meets JFSI's minimum physical requirements and energy demand and utility rate profile, then JFSI will add you to the list of facilities we hope to provide with solar power. For a list of a the basic minimum criteria of partnering with JFSI click here.
Other than where you will send part of your monthly bill for electricity, there is little to no operational impact on your organization or facility. And your facility "goes solar" with no financial risk or compromise to your facilities primary mission - being a sacred and communal space for vibrant Jewish life.
For JFSI to partner with and provide solar energy to your facility your facility needs to be able to:
א: "Host" the JFSI system (usually on the facility's roof) and
ב: Enter a "Power Purchase Covenant" (PPC) with JFSI.
The PPC is the contract that defines the terms under which your organization agrees to buy the clean and renewable energy from the JFSI owned and operated solar system hosted on your facility. In the secular world these common contracts are called "Power Purchase Agreements" (PPA's). We see our relationship with our partners as more of a covenant; so we bind ourselves accordingly.
BENEFIT OF THE PPC:
The PPC spells out exactly how much you pay for the energy from the solar system for years into the future. The energy from the JFSI system will start out competitively priced with your current rates for grid power but escalates at a rate less than that for grid power. As a result your energy costs should grow more slowly than if you only bought energy from the grid - with potential savings growing year after year. By spelling out exactly how much the energy is going to cost, the PPC provides your facility with an excellent budgetary planning tool and a hedge against future utility price increases.
Utility rates have historically risen at about 5.5% per year. The solar power you receive from the JFSI solar energy system is guaranteed to rise at a rate less than that. Therefore, as utility rates continue to rise, your potential savings increase.
HOW WE DO IT:
JFSI is a "solar power aggregator" that specializes in bringing solar to Jewish facilities. To do this, JFSI brings together the three key factors required for any renewable energy system:
א The capital to finance a clean &
renewable photovoltaic solar generation system,
ב The technical "know-how"
to design & operate a highly reliable photovoltaic solar generation
system, and
ג The aggregated demand (by Jewish
facilities) for energy sufficient to support the cost-effective financing
of a photovoltaic solar generation system.
It is the scale of the JFSI venture that allows it to be financially and operationally feasible. We are identifying at least 1.5MW (enough for several thousand homes) of solar energy generating capacity on Jewish facilities that meet minimum physical characteristics and have minimum energy demand profiles. By aggregating this demand together into a fund, the JFSI Fund, JFSI can take advantage of the 30% federal solar energy tax credit which is not available to non-profit organizations. Utilizing this incentive, JFSI is able to finance and deliver solar energy at a cost that Jewish facilities can't achieve individually.
By carefully matching the size of our capital fund with the size of the
solar systems that our partner facilities need, JFSI is able to offer
clean, renewable solar energy at competitive rates. JFSI then uses the
money your facility pays JFSI for the solar energy your facility uses,
under the terms of the PPC agreement, to repay our investors through a
carefully structured investment vehicle that specific classes of investors
find attractive. For more information about the scale of our initiative,
or how we plan to finance this effort, be sure to read the JFSI
Fund section of the web site.
DESIGNING AND INSTALLING THE SYSTEM:
JFSI partners with only a select few solar integrators that we know and trust (and are fully insured and bonded!) to design and install a solar system on your sacred facility. Significant expertise and extensive experience is required to design and install reliable energy systems - and solar energy systems are no different, especially when considering they will be placed "on" your facility (the condition of which is core to your missions).
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AGGREGATED ENERGY DEMAND:
It's all about scale. By aggregating the electricity demand of multiple Jewish facilities, JFSI is able to achieve a scale that makes the entire initiative viable. Individually your facility would likely not be able to justify the cost or hassle associated with owning a solar system. But by aggregating the demand for clean, renewable solar energy (in this case, about 1.5mW) JFSI is able to lower the cost of solar energy, efficiently address complex solar-rebates and other financial incentives, share and spread operational, legal and insurance costs, and put together a project that, as a whole, is big enough to attract the capital and technical know-how necessary to make JFSI worth doing. Read more for information about solar aggregation.
For more details about the process, timeline and schedule please read
more here.