PLYMOUTH, Box Elder County – A new 80-megawatt solar farm in Box Elder County will power several Utah cities across the state.
The Steel Solar project consists of more than 200,000 solar panels. Engineers with SOLV Energy said it sits on about 900 acres off Interstate 15.
“They receive a small radio signal from our operations center outside of San Diego, so there are antennas all over the place, wired in turns,” said project manager Luke Derby. “The computers from San Diego put everything on a timer, and the radio is sent, and the rows alternate as the sun moves through the day.”
Steel Solar is the latest Utah project from national developer DE Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI).
“We’re about seven or eight projects, it’s a big investment over many years, five or six, seven years we’ve committed to investing in this state,” said chief development officer Hy Martin.
Cities around the state
About 600 acres of solar panels power 20 cities: Blanding, Bountiful, Ephraim, Fairview, Fillmore, Heber Light & Power, Hurricane, Hyrum, Lehi, Logan, Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, Paragonah, Payson, Price, Santa Clara, Springville, South Utah Valley Electric Service District, St. George and Washington.
Each city belongs to the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, or UAMPS. CEO and general manager Mason Baker said 20 of his 50 members have chosen to go solar.
“Solar power like this will occur in the summer when peak load occurs, so our electricity demand on the system is at its highest,” Baker said.
According to him, the project will work only 30% within a certain year.
DESRI’s solar farm, Elektron Solar, in Tooele recently began generating power for Salt Lake City, Park City, some ski resorts and Utah Valley University.
Baker said customers at home won’t notice a difference.
“When it comes to the overall resource mix, it’s still a fairly small part of it,” he said.
Withstand the weather
Solar panels can withstand harsh weather, Derby said.
“If there’s a lot of snow piled up on top of them, they can send a signal to tilt them all over and dump the snow,” he said.
He said they last about 25-35 years.
“Once a year, they’ll get a little maintenance, but for the most part, we work out all the bugs in the construction so it runs pretty smoothly for the next five to 10 years,” Derby said.
Half of the panels are one-sided. The other half is hypocritical.
“It takes some of the sunlight reflected off the ground or snow,” Derby said.
Although the panels are inexpensive, Baker said, they are a source that many Utahns rely on.
“We have to have different resources, whether they are renewable, we see a place for natural gas,” he said. “We still have coal in our resource portfolio, it’s going to be there for a while.”
Martin said the panels are more affordable.
“What we typically find in our fleet is that we can generate power at a lower rate than older, less efficient coal plants,” he said.
He said Steel Solar’s capital expenditures are in the $100 million range. UAMP’s member communities pay once the power comes online.
“When the project actually declares COD and starts generating power, UAMPS’s member communities pay us for the energy we produce from the project, the renewable energy, for the next 25 years,” Martin said.
The developer will own and operate these solar farms long-term.
“We basically try to develop and build clean energy projects wherever we can, and we think Utah is looking to the future, and we definitely want to meet that demand with future clean energy development,” Martin said.