Contractor meticulously installs solar on oldest church in US
Adobe structures are a hallmark of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Throughout the city, one can find fencing, homes, schools and restaurants made of sundried mudbricks. It’d be impossible for local contractor Positive Energy Solar (No. 200 on the 2024 Top Solar Contractors List) to not have some experience installing solar panels on adobe structures. So the company didn’t balk at an opportunity for a special project in the city’s downtown district — adding solar to the oldest church in the continental United States.
San Miguel Chapel is believed to have been built by Tlaxcalan people from Mexico in 1610 under the direction of Franciscan padres. Through wars, rebellions, storms and fires, the chapel has been repaired, expanded and refurbished but still retains much of its original adobe makeup. The chapel has been owned by St. Michael’s High School since 1859 and continues to hold a monthly mass to this day. The site hosts concerts and other events, and the church itself is a point of pride for the community.
San Miguel Chapel’s location within Barrio de Analco Historic District, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968, means there are construction requirements to ensure the area retains its historic significance. When installing solar, no conduit, inverters, meters or solar panels should be visible from a public viewpoint. Cornerstones, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of adobe structures throughout the Southwest, began exploring in 2018 how the church could go solar, and eventually called on Positive Energy Solar to make it happen. The solar company had installed a project on the Lamy Building (the former St. Michael’s Dormitory) next door to the church and had experience working within the historic confines of the district.
Positive Energy Solar installers worked carefully on the oldest church roof in the United States. Wires were concealed through the church’s bell tower.
Still, concealing solar on the oldest church in the country was a high-stress job for Positive Energy Solar.
“I was born and raised in Santa Fe, so this is part of my background, seeing this church,” said Thomas Gray, VP of commercial business at Positive Energy Solar. “Is it a money-making project? Absolutely not. But do I want someone else to do it? No. I want to know it’s going to get done right, especially with such an important building. Everyone in Santa Fe knows this building is iconic and has so much history.”
To begin, Positive Energy Solar had to determine if the old roof could support solar. Structural engineers found wooden timbers were holding up the roof, and the roofing membrane needed an upgrade. But it was eventually deemed worthy, and Positive Energy Solar decided on a ballasted dual-tilt system to keep the array height low. Twenty solar panels were installed for an 8.8-kW system. Conduit was run first though the bell tower to hide it from view and then through 5 ft of adobe to a utility room below.
“That was one of the most stressful things that the team had to do,” Gray said. “You don’t make a big hole; you make a smaller hole and clear out as little as you can so you get the pressure between the two materials right. Adobe is literally mud, clay, sand and straw.”
Unsurprisingly, the old church had an outdated electrical system, so Positive Energy Solar had to bring everything up to code. The company moved the service lines away from the church to comply with the district’s historic preservation requirements, but found bones while trenching lines. Thankfully, they were only animal bones, but the project was delayed while cultural testing was performed.
Everything worked out eventually. The array was commissioned in September 2023 and should more than cover 100% of San Miguel Chapel’s annual consumption.
“We oversized it a little bit,” Gray said. “The financial savings help them to reallocate that money toward programs. But it was an environmental thing for them, and to showcase and inspire others to follow.”
Since elected to the papacy in 2013, Pope Francis has urged followers to combat climate change as best they can, and San Miguel Chapel answered the call with this project. The church hopes more religious sites will join its progress.
The $80,000 project was funded entirely by grants and donations, including gifts from Remy’s Good Day Fund, a local nonprofit that invests in solar energy in New Mexico. Positive Energy Solar also donated its time on the project, something marketing director Christopher Fortson said is important for an employee-owned company supporting its community.
“The values that we have as a company played a really big part of wanting to do something like this,” he said. “The fact that we got through this, and it’s worked structurally — we didn’t break the building! When the community can come together and make that happen, it just feels great.”
This story was featured exclusively in our 2024 Top Solar Contractors issue. See the issue and full list of top U.S. solar installers here.