WInd turbines rotate in Beaver County. Utah communities' efforts to bring in more renewable energy sources have faced headwinds, including Rocky Mountain Power's decision to back away from clean power purchases this decade.
Today all of them get their electricity through Rocky Mountain Power, and together they are more than a fifth of Rocky Mountain’s customers in Utah. But the state’s largest electrical utility recently announcedThe 18 communities were hoping to piggyback on Rocky Mountain’s clean power purchases, but now they are trying to go it alone and set up their own power purchase agreements with solar and wind energy producers.“Well, it’s frustrating.
“Our goal is to have enough by 2030 to make us be 100% renewable,” said Silvestrini. “The more time that goes by, the harder it is to reach that goal. We did not get any good feedback from the meeting.” Even if the communities are successful, residents will still rely on fossil fuel power at certain times. The intent of the program is to sign up enough renewable sources to equal what they consume, but those renewable sources are intermittent. While that isn’t a true 100% renewable power system, it is still expected to accelerate the conversion to renewables.But that’s only if the group can find enough renewable sources that can be contracted at a reasonable price.