The Sandy Spring Friends Meeting is one of the oldest Quaker Meetings in Maryland and was founded in 1753. Sandy Spring is a welcoming, inclusive congregation striving to become an anti-racist community, where all people, including LGBTQ families, are invited to participate in all aspects of their community life. Almost 400 households are members or attend Sandy Spring Friends Meeting and more than 120 people cooperate to serve on committees, ensuring the work of the congregation is done. 

Sandy Spring is active in the community and donates to local, national, and international charities, serves on committees to help run Baltimore Yearly Meeting, and advocates for environmental, social justice, peace, and educational causes. 

Sandy Spring’s Motivation for Going Solar 

"Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting is excited to show off our environmental advocacy with solar panels on a new addition on our historic property," said Susan Thornton Hobby, the volunteer solar project manager for the Quaker community in Montgomery County, Maryland. 

Sandy Spring Friends Meeting went solar with RE-volv in 2022 through a 32 kW solar system. This is RE-volv’s first solar project in Maryland and the first time the nonprofit has received funding from a Green Bank. By going solar, Sandy Spring will save approximately $48,000 off the cost of their electricity bills over the lifetime of the system while eliminating 1.4 million pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. 

Susan Thornton Hobby from Sandy Springs says, "Stewardship of the earth is one of the pillars of Quaker belief, and Green Bank and RE-volv have made this effort possible with a Power Purchase Agreement. This arrangement, with RE-volv installing solar panels at no cost to our Meeting, allows our congregation to both use green energy and to continue funding the causes we believe in, such as social justice, poverty elimination, justice reform, and peace efforts. We're excited to save money on our energy usage, but most of all, we want to use renewable energy to help our planet recover from the harm we have all caused.”

How Sandy Springs Went Solar 

By going solar with RE-volv, Sandy Spring Friends Meeting was able to save more than 15% on their electricity bills, while going solar for $0 down through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement. This solar project was made possible through a funding partnership with the Montgomery County Green Bank, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating affordable energy efficiency and clean energy investment in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Montgomery County Green Bank provided a loan to RE-volv to pay for a portion of the up-front costs of Sandy Springs Monthly Meeting’s solar system. With this capital, RE-volv financed the up-front cost of Sandy Spring’s 32 kW solar system.