Within 16 months of inaugurating the new Dar-e-Mehr in New York, a solar system was installed on the premises and made operational beginning July 27, 2017. "A solar system would not only reduce electricity costs and thus overall maintenance costs for our Dar-e-Mehr, it would also impact our environment positively and be in keeping with our scriptures and faith traditions,” noted a detailed report from Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York (ZAGNY) members Edul Daver and Nina Mistry, volunteers for the New Dar-e-Mehr Initiative, hoping it will serve as an inspiration to other associations.
"DMZT (Dar-e-Mehr Zoroastrian Temple) will currently receive electricity with a saving of about 35% and in a few years when it acquires the assets, about 93% of its needs would come from solar energy with a cost saving of about $ 10,000 (Rs 6,48,600) per year,” they stated.
Above: newly installed invertors and solar panels at the New York Dar-e-Mehr (alongside) facilitate renewable energy
The major challenge for this project was to raise funds from the tri-state community of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that "suffered donor fatigue having stepped up to the plate to raise approximately $ 5.5 million (Rs 35,67,30,000) for the recently completed new Dar-e-Mehr building.” Further, DMZT, being a non-profit, could not benefit from the tax credits and incentives, resulting in the payback period stretching beyond the estimated six years. Initially Daver tried finding a third party investor, working with A. Javan of GeoPeak but the project did not excite any potential investors.
Just as Daver had set the fund-raising ball rolling for the new Dar-e-Mehr with investments from community members, this time too he found a group of people from the community to form a company, ZSolar LLC, invest the monies, take the incentives and supply DMZT with solar generated electricity at a discounted price. Once most of the investment is recovered, they could consider selling the assets to DMZT. "The Magnificent Seven” — the group of seven investors willing to invest in the project — included two who are not from New York area "but feel strongly that our solar project is a novel idea and is in keeping with our Zoroastrian values.” The intrepid individuals, some of them being interfaith couples, are Hira and Toos Daruvala, Niloufer and Edul Daver, Khursheed Navder and Shailendra Dusaj, Dhun Mehta and Verlin Allbritton, Monica and Ruyintan Mehta, Phiroza and Satish Modi, and Behram Pastakia. Following a rebate of $22,000 (Rs 14,26,920) from New York state, the net project cost to the investors was $146,000 (Rs 94,69,560).
"There was considerable work required to form ZSolar LLC, have a partners agreement, memorandum of understanding with DMZT, quarterly New York state reports, etc. GeoPeak helped with the request for quotations, specified the equipment and reviewed the contract on our behalf, all at no cost, as a favor due to Javan’s relationship with and respect for our Zoroastrian community,” as per the write-up.
The solar system installation contract was awarded to RGS Energy that utilizes 172 Canadian solar panels and three Fronius invertors. "We have a net metering system arrangement with the utility company which means that when we generate more electricity than what is used we feed it back to the grid and our meter runs in reverse.” Expecting that in winter the consumption of electricity will be greater, members of ZAGNY are advised to "conserve energy when possible and not get into a frame of mind that we can use more electricity because we have a solar system.”
Zoroastrian associations in USA, especially those in states offering net metering and other renewable energy incentives, are advised by Daver and Mistry, to consider adopting this "very workable model.”