New solar farm in Tooele County will deliver big on renewable energy

Good News Notes:

Some of Utah’s big energy consumers will be getting a significant amount of power from a planned solar plant in Tooele County, helping them to reach their renewable energy goals much more quickly than planned.

Thanks to approval from the Utah Public Service Commission of a renewable energy tariff for Rocky Mountain Power, the project is due to come online in 2023 and will be one of the largest solar energy generators in the utility company’s system.

The six customers with commitments for the energy are: Salt Lake City, Park City, Summit County, Utah Valley University, Park City Mountain and Deer Valley ski resorts.

The Elektron Solar project is owned and will be constructed by D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments in collaboration with Enyo Renewable Energy, a renewable energy developer based in Utah.

Enyo and D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments will be responsible for generating more than 275 megawatt hours of energy in northern Utah via customer-driven solar capacity under construction beginning in 2021 and into 2022. A megawatt is a million watts of electricity.

UVU President Astrid Tuminez said the Tooele solar plant will provide more than 90% of the campus’ electricity needs and put the university soundly on the path of being carbon neutral by 2050.

UVU will receive about 23% of the project’s solar generation, said Frank Young, associate vice president of facilities planning for the university.

The campus’ energy needs demand about 42,000 kilowatt hours on an annual basis. The Tooele County plant will generate about 40,200 of those hours needed for yearly operations, he added.”

View the whole story here: https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/11/30/21726903/elektron-solar-project-solar-farm-tooele-county

Leave a Reply