NC foodbank goes solar to protect funding for community support

MANNA FoodBank, which serves communities across Western North Carolina and the Qualla Boundary, has finished installing a 514-kW rooftop solar system at its office and warehouse in Mills River. Pisgah Energy did the installation, using SEG panels and SolarEdge inverters, and the system is expected to generate more than 643,000 kWh of electricity a year.

The project got support from several sources: a $55,000 donation of solar panel racking from Enstall, help from the Footprint Project, and a $200,000 grant from BuildUS aimed at strengthening energy resilience in rural Western North Carolina. MANNA also used a nonprofit direct pay incentive, a way for tax-exempt organizations to get cash value from clean energy tax credits even though they don't owe income tax. With that funding stacked together, the food bank expects to pay off the system in about 4.5 years.

The savings matter because MANNA and its network of more than 300 partner organizations now serve around 220,000 visits a month across 16 counties and the Qualla Boundary, as more families deal with rising costs for housing, food, and utilities. By cutting its own energy bills, the food bank frees up money to spend on sourcing, storing, and distributing food instead. For homeowners, the project is a reminder that the same kind of combined funding, grants, donated equipment, and tax incentives that nonprofits use can also apply to home solar costs, though the specific programs and payback math will differ for a house.