Some donations Urban Ministries of Durham has been counting on are slow in coming, but two of the biggest are already hard at work – up on the roof.

Solar panels are now producing power and hot water for the homeless shelter and community kitchen, courtesy of the conservation group NC WARN.

“It’s like somebody writing a check for a couple thousand dollars every year for the next 25 or 30 years,” said Bryan Gilmer, Urban Ministries’ development director. “That’s a huge contribution.”

Durham-headquartered NC WARN is promoting solar energy by donating systems to nonprofits that serve the needy: “Homeless shelters, recovery centers, stuff like that,” said assistant director Rita Leadem.

“Being a nonprofit ourselves, we totally appreciate how much it makes a difference to be able to offset costs,” she said.

Leadem’s group is also donating a hot-water system to the Helen Wright Center for Women in Raleigh and water and electrical systems to Freedom House in Chapel Hill. Design and installation is being done by Yes! Solar Systems, a Cary company.

Yes! Solar President Stew Miller said the systems offset more than 60 percent of Urban Ministries’ hot-water cost, and produce about 6,600 kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

“It is truly affordable to put solar energy in the areas where we need it most, in the affordable housing and nonprofit sector,” Miller said.

With the new power configuration, Gilmer said, “the (electric) meter can actually run backward, so if we’re generating electricity and not using it, it goes straight back into the grid and is used by somebody else. ... It reduces our electric bill.”

The hot water system has been operating about three months already, the electrical – or “photovoltaic” – system about three weeks. NC WARN is looking for cash donations to place more solar systems on social-service nonprofits around the state.

“It helps everybody,” said WARN director Jim Warren. “The more solar we install the more we move away from the need to build multi-billion dollar power plants.”

Gilmer said solar power had been on UMD’s priority list, but the donation came as a surprise.

“It’s exciting,” said Urban Ministries director Patrice Nelson; the installations will save the equivalent cost of several thousand meals in the UMD cafe, she said, and they came when some Urban Ministries benefactors – governments, in particular – are taking their time.

“Money we thought we would have in January we probably won’t have until July,” she said. “Money we thought we would have in March we won’t have until November.”

The solar systems, on the other hand, are saving money all the time, and UMD held a ceremonial ribbon cutting on Monday, even though an overcast blocked the sun from view.

“Even today, in the rain,” said Miller, “we’re producing some electricity.”