Park City operations will run on 100% renewable electricity in 2022

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall (left) and Park City Mayor Andy Beerman at the groundbreaking event on Tuesday in Tooele County. Photo: Summit County, Utah

TOOELE COUNTY, Utah — On Tuesday, the groundbreaking of a new 80-megawatt Elektron Solar project was celebrated.

When complete, it will be one of the largest solar generators connected to the Rocky Mountain Power system.

The project includes many partners — Park City Municipal, Rocky Mountain Power, Salt Lake City, Summit County, Utah Valley University, Deer Valley Resort, and Park City Mountain. It is one of the largest solar generators connected to the Rocky Mountain Power system.

“This project will create clean jobs in rural Utah and get the city to its goal of 100% renewable electricity for City operations by 2022,” Park City Municipal said in a post.

The project was approved by the Utah Public Service Commission in November of 2020.

The Elektron Solar project is anticipated to support approximately 100 construction jobs and will be an ongoing source of revenues to both Tooele County as well as the State of Utah’s School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, which owns the land on which the project is sited — according to Rocky Mountain Power.

Salt Lake City Corporation expects to source almost 90 percent of its annual electricity from the project while seeing the electric bill for city operations increase by less than 2 percent.