Lombard synagogue touts new solar panels

A Lombard synagogue will dedicate “a birthday present for the world” Sunday in the form of 136 newly installed solar roofing panels.

The dedication takes place less than two weeks before Rosh Hashana, which is the Jewish new year, or as Rabbi Steven Bob of Congregation Etz Chaim puts it, “the day the world was created,” its birthday.

The solar panels, which will provide about 20 percent of the energy used by the synagogue, are a renewable birthday present to the earth, acquired after two years of grant-seeking, planning and fundraising, Bob said.

“I talked about it as a birthday present for the world,” Bob said he told the congregation two years ago during his Rosh Hashana sermon. “What do you give the world? I said, a birthday present for the world is taking care of the world.”

Members of the Etz Chaim community took his message to heart.

“He called on the congregation to support renewable energy more broadly and specifically in the form of solar energy and solar power for the good of the earth and the good of the climate and future generations,” said Joel Spenadel of Glen Ellyn, who finances renewable power projects for JPMorgan Chase & Co. “That was his call to action.”

Spenadel and several others who work in renewable energy fields formed a committee to explore funding for a solar panel project.

The committee determined a grant was available through the federal stimulus program and quickly applied. That grant ended up funding half of the project’s $194,000 cost, Bob said.

The solar panels were installed Friday after the synagogue’s roof underwent repairs this summer.

And they are just the beginning of a coalition the synagogue is spearheading, Bob said. Called the Fourth Day Initiative, (because, according to the book of Genesis, God created the sun on the fourth day) the group now includes 28 houses of worship nationwide that are committed to solar energy. Bob hopes the group will expand in the future.

Congregation Etz Chaim is the first of those 28 organizations — including groups in Glen Ellyn and Elmhurst — to install solar panels, and the finished product will serve as an example showing it’s possible, Bob said.

“By putting these solar panels on the roofs of the houses of worship, it reduces our consumption of carbon-based energy and it also provides leadership for our communities,” Bob said.

The dedication will take place outside the synagogue at 12:30 p.m. Sunday and will thank those who made the solar panel project possible in words, songs and prayer.

“On Sunday, we’ll gather together to be very proud and excited,” Bob said. “We’ll reflect on everything that we did to make this possible.”