The Durham Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (DUUF) on Friday became the first solar powered house of worship in New Hampshire.

DURHAM — The Durham Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (DUUF) on Friday became the first solar powered house of worship in New Hampshire.

Michael Fleming, the Green Sanctuary Chair at DUUF, said the congregation had been looking into solar projects for the past five years. There was a proposed joint project beginning 18 months ago with all Durham churches to convert to solar power, but that was ultimately deemed too complicated to complete, so DUUF moved forward on its own.

Barrington Power, based out of Barrington, installed the 12,000-watt solar panel system on the roof of one of DUUF’s buildings in December. The equipment became fully operational on Friday. Jack Bingham, managing member of Barrington Power, estimated the project is worth $42,000.

As chair of the green sanctuary, Fleming spearheaded the plan and began active work in May of 2015.

“First, we had to understand the whole physical part of the operation — how do solar panels work, the legal and financial frameworks, and what would work for us … one of the primary things was knowing we could not get the 30 percent federal rebate because of our non-profit status,” Fleming said.

Fleming said that because DUUF could not receive the 30 percent solar installation tax credit, the congregation could not afford to invest in solar panels and was unwilling to tie up private funds in a capital campaign.

After contacting nearly a dozen local solar providers, Barrington Power presented the ideal alternative.

Bingham said Barrington Power and DUUF entered into a "power purchase agreement" designed to benefit nonprofits and private companies who are unable or unwilling to invest capital funds into buying their own solar panels.

The power purchase agreement works by allowing Barrington Power to act as the third party to accept the 30 percent tax credit, lowering installation costs for the company. In return, DUUF must pay the power company a monthly power bill, similar to any other utility bill the congregation paid in the past. As the third party, Barrington Power is obligated to own the solar panels for at least six years and was responsible for installing and managing DUUF’s system.

“(The power purchase agreement) is what makes it work for us, because Barrington Power is putting up the capital to install panels and we are just paying for power,” Fleming said.

According to Fleming, the congregation was united in its support for the solar power project. DUUF does not hold services in the summer months, but the congregation’s green sanctuary committee sent out a survey of membership in the summer of 2015. Survey responses showed that virtually everyone approved of the plan.

Moving to solar power is in line with DUUF’s major set of principles, Fleming said.

“The DUUF church doesn’t have doctrines, per say, but it does have a set of seven principles. The seventh principle requires us to have ‘respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,’” Fleming said.

The installation of the solar panels made DUUF the first solar powered congregation in the state.

Bingham said that while solar powered properties are on the rise in New Hampshire, the state cap on net metering is too low. The cap is 1.5 to 2 percent of the total energy load. By comparison, Maine has no cap, and Vermont has a 15 percent cap.

“All solar powered operations are based on net metering — which means that today we might be generating more power than we’re using, so the meter stores the extra, and is going up. We’re trying to raise (New Hampshire’s) cap. It was an arbitrary number generated eight to 10 years ago when the technology was 70 percent more expensive than it is today … the public should reach out to the state senate about this,” Bingham said.