LDS Church unveils plans for eco-friendly building in Eagle Mountain

(Daily Herald) Earth Day was last week, but every day will be environmentally conscious at five church buildings that are part of a new pilot program recently launched by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On Tuesday, church officials conducted a tour of the first of the new buildings to be completed, a stake center in Farmington.

The Farmington building has a range of environmentally friendly features, highlighted by an array of 158 solar panels on the south-facing slope of the building's roof. The panels have a 25-year warranty and Jared Doxey, church director of architecture, engineering and construction, said church engineers estimate that the solar array will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million pounds over the term of the warranty.

The electrical generation capacity of the array is such that, over the course of a year, the Farmington building will completely supply its own power needs, saving thousands of dollars. The building will draw from the local electrical grid during peak usage times, such as Sunday worship services, but will funnel power back into the grid on other days.

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