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Steve Helpful
Utah is likely one of the quickest rising states within the nation, with the most effective 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 technology capability added to Utah’s grid was photo voltaic, in keeping with the US Power Data 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 consider.
Effectively, here is some breaking information: The divisive voices within the nationwide media are fallacious.
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 price of solar-powered electrical energy has fallen by practically 90% since 2009, making it aggressive with electrical energy from present energy vegetation that burn coal or pure gasoline. In different phrases, what was some of the costly sources of electrical energy is now one of many least expensive.
The falling price 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 information. In truth, of all the eight Mountain states, solely Nevada will get the next share of its electrical energy from photo voltaic, at practically 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 firms.
However to provide a greater understanding of how briskly the photo voltaic trade is rising within the West, contemplate the next: At present, the states of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming produce practically 100 occasions extra electrical energy from photo voltaic. than they did greater than a decade in the past, in keeping with EIA information.
The speedy progress of photo voltaic power in Utah is particularly optimistic for our state’s rural communities, which host practically 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 building and different funding exercise in Utah tied to photo voltaic and different renewables for the reason that 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 ability 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 exterior Salt Lake Metropolis started producing a brand new mineral – tellurium – on the similar location. Tellurium is about eight occasions extra uncommon than gold and is one among 35 minerals thought of crucial to our nation’s financial system and nationwide safety by the Trump administration in 2018.
Up to now, 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 shall be used to construct photo voltaic panels in Ohio, which is likely one of the largest photo voltaic manufacturing facilities exterior of China.
This clearly helped Utah’s mining sector, however the strategic worth of manufacturing extra power applied sciences within the US was additionally famous by Gov. Spencer Cox on the official opening of the tellurium manufacturing line.
“I believe what we’re doing as we speak is as necessary 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, all the photo voltaic provide chain contributes positively to our financial system, our tax base, the power of our communities and the power of our nation. With the whole lot that has been completed in over a decade, I am unable to wait to see what the subsequent 10 years will convey.
Steve Helpful 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 corporation centered on aggressive market options to environmental and conservation challenges.
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