Solar power: Make electricity while the sun shines
Editorial from The Salt Lake Tribune
You may have seen or read about those solar panels on the roof of the Salt Palace Convention Center that help to supply the building’s electric power. That system is good for the environment because it is fueled by the sun instead of coal or natural gas. It also helps to reduce, by a very small amount, the total demand on Rocky Mountain Power’s supply during the heat of a summer’s day.
But there’s a legal limit, literally, on how much credit such a facility can get on its power bill for producing some of its own electricity. Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon wants to increase that limit in Utah law, and, in the process, encourage similar renewable energy projects at other county facilities and beyond.
We believe that’s a good idea. If a person, business or government is willing to invest in a system to generate clean, renewable electricity, that investment should be rewarded by at least an offset on a power bill.
Utah has had such a system since 2002. It’s called a net metering program. Suppose a utility customer has a system that generates electricity using a fuel cell or a renewable technology, and that customer is able to produce enough power to supply her needs plus some excess that she provides to the utility through its grid. The utility furnishes a meter that is able to measure the amount of electricity that the utility supplies to the customer and the amount that the customer supplies to the utility. The difference is the net.
Customers with solar systems usually generate power by day but buy it from the utility at night.
If the customer supplies more electricity than she takes during a billing period, she gets a credit on her bill.
However, under current law, that credit is limited to a generating capacity of 25 kilowatts. The Salt Palace system now generates about 20 kilowatts, and the county is installing a similar system at the Clark Planetarium that would produce 25 kilowatts.
The legislation Corroon is supporting would increase the allowable capacity under the net metering program to 2 megawatts. County officials believe that the Salt Palace has enough room on its roof to expand the system to about 1.8 megawatts.
It’s a small step toward greater independence from electricity generated from fossil fuels, but it’s a step Utah should take.
If a person, business or government is willing to invest in a system to generate clean, renewable electricity, that investment should be rewarded by at least an offset on a power bill.
