Photograph supplied
Steve Useful
Utah is likely one of the quickest rising states within the nation, with probably the greatest economies, and all that success requires power. So what new power sources are being added to the Utah energy grid to deal with all the expansion?
Coal? Pure gasoline? air? No – it is photo voltaic.
As of 2015, about 93% of the electrical energy era capability added to Utah’s grid was photo voltaic, in keeping with the US Power Info Administration (EIA).
That will come as a shock, given all of the political stereotypes and divisive rhetoric about totally different power sources. Utah is a reliably pink state and Republicans hate each supply of power besides fossil fuels – at the very least that is what some within the nationwide media would have us imagine.
Properly, this is some breaking information: The divisive voices within the nationwide media are unsuitable.
Photo voltaic power is booming in Utah as a result of it makes good enterprise sense. Sure, the price of electrical energy from photo voltaic panels was very costly, however beginning within the late 2000s, that began to vary in a giant method.
The unsubsidized value of solar-powered electrical energy has fallen by almost 90% since 2009, making it aggressive with electrical energy from present energy vegetation that burn coal or pure gasoline. In different phrases, what was one of the costly sources of electrical energy is now one of many most cost-effective.
The falling value of solar energy has fueled a exceptional enlargement right here in Utah and throughout the Mountain West.
In 2009, the quantity of solar energy in Utah was too small for the EIA to measure. However by 2021, photo voltaic panels will account for greater than 8% of all electrical energy generated in our state, in keeping with EIA knowledge. In reality, of the whole eight Mountain states, solely Nevada will get the next share of its electrical energy from photo voltaic, at almost 16%.
These photo voltaic panels can now be discovered on the roofs of houses and companies and in large-scale photo voltaic arrays constructed by energy corporations.
However to present a greater understanding of how briskly the photo voltaic trade is rising within the West, think about the next: At this time, the states of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming produce almost 100 instances extra electrical energy from photo voltaic. than they did greater than a decade in the past, in keeping with EIA knowledge.
The fast progress of photo voltaic power in Utah is very optimistic for our state’s rural communities, which host almost two dozen massive photo voltaic arrays, in keeping with a 2021 report from The Western Means, a nonprofit that seeks conservative options to environmental challenges.
The identical report discovered greater than $5 billion in development and different funding exercise in Utah tied to photo voltaic and different renewables because the late 2000s, to not point out greater than 9,000 jobs.
However the advantages do not finish with the set up of photo voltaic panels and the low-cost, carbon-free electrical energy they ship to the facility grid. The enlargement of photo voltaic and different renewable power applied sciences throughout the US can also be encouraging new funding within the mining trade in Utah and different Western states.
In Could, operators of the Kennecott copper mine outdoors Salt Lake Metropolis started producing a brand new mineral – tellurium – on the similar location. Tellurium is about eight instances extra uncommon than gold and is one in every of 35 minerals thought of important to our nation’s financial system and nationwide safety by the Trump administration in 2018.
Previously, the tellurium discovered within the copper-bearing ores of the Kennecott mine was disposed of as waste. However as a result of so many photo voltaic panels are made within the US, it’s now economical for the proprietor of the Kennecott mine – Rio Tinto – to refine and promote the tellurium to home prospects.
Tellurium from the Kennecott mine will probably be used to construct photo voltaic panels in Ohio, which is likely one of the largest photo voltaic manufacturing facilities outdoors of China.
This clearly helped Utah’s mining sector, however the strategic worth of manufacturing extra power expertise within the US was additionally famous by Gov. Spencer Cox on the official opening of the tellurium manufacturing line.
“I feel what we’re doing at present is as vital because the F-35 (stealth fighter jets) at Hill Air Drive Base for nationwide safety,” he mentioned.
Right here in Utah and all through the West, the whole photo voltaic provide chain contributes positively to our financial system, our tax base, the energy of our communities and the energy of our nation. With every part that has been completed in over a decade, I can not wait to see what the subsequent 10 years will deliver.
Steve Useful is a resident of Layton and accomplished 12 years within the Utah Home of Representatives. Professionally, he owns a advertising and marketing communications agency and is the Utah state director for The Western Means, a company centered on aggressive market options to environmental and conservation challenges.
E-newsletter
