Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Mayor Biskupski Announces New Solar Installations Completed on Seven Government Facilities

September 14, 2017: Mayor Biskupski announces the completion of rooftop solar installations on seven city buildings, totaling 756 panels and 320,000 kW/year.

On Thursday at Fire Station 10, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, Fire Chief Karl Lieb and Tyler Poulson from the Sustainability Department discussed the City’s recent investment in solar power on seven separate municipal facilities, including five fire stations.

This latest round of installations doubles the total number of Salt Lake City municipal sites with solar energy to 14 separate facilities. When combined with the City’s recent enrollment in the Rocky Mountain Power Subscriber Solar Program, the total amount of renewable energy projects equals roughly 12 percent of annual electricity needs for City government facilities.

The locations receiving solar installations thus far in 2017 include Fire Station 1, Fire Station 4, Fire Station 7, Fire Station 10, Fire Station 13, Regional Athletic Complex and Pioneer Police Precinct. In total, 756 solar panels were added and they will provide between 17 percent and 92 percent of onsite annual electricity needs, depending on the facility. Continue reading →

Agreement Reached for Utah Rooftop Solar

On Monday, the Governor’s Office of Energy Development issued news that a significant agreement had been reached between parties previously at odds over how to move forward with rooftop solar development in Utah.

The main point of contention was how to compensate rooftop solar owners for the excess electricity they sell back to the utility. In November 2016, Rocky Mountain Power proposed a change in their rate structure that could make it more difficult for homeowners to afford solar panels.

Because Salt Lake City is committed to advancing clean energy and supports the growth in rooftop solar, we opposed the proposed changes to the rate structure. In other states, notably Nevada, where similar changes have taken effect, the solar industry has imploded.

At about the same time, the Governor’s Office of Energy Development stepped in, outside of the formal Public Service Commission process, to try and broker an agreement on this thorny issue. Continue reading →

A New Partnership Aims to Reduce Food Waste in Salt Lake City and Beyond

by Terra Pace

In Salt Lake City, we’re proud to offer curbside compost collection for residents. That means those brown bins can take more than just leaves and twigs– they can take your fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, and coffee grounds.

However, food waste is still a big problem. In the U.S. nearly 40% of the nation’s food supply is thrown out, and according to the EPA, 20% of what goes to municipal landfills is food waste.

While compost operations can handle raw fruit and vegetable scraps, a missing piece of the food waste puzzle– particularly for large operations– is what to do with prepared products. This includes cooked foods, packaged foods, meat, cheese, and leftovers from someone’s dinner plate.

Enter Wasatch Resource Recovery.

Slated for operation in fall of 2018, the company will open an “anaerobic digester” that will be able to turn organic waste– including fats, oils, and grease– into sustainable resources –– biogas and bio-based fertilizer. This project, which will help to greatly reduce the amount of food going to our landfill, will also generate energy.

Continue reading →

Moving forward with a Comprehensive Sustainability Policy for Salt Lake City Corp

by Brooke Taylor

As our readers know, one of SLCgreen’s core goals is to help you adopt tips and practices to make your life more sustainable. Whether that’s reducing your contribution to air pollution, learning how to eat more local food, or understanding what to recycle, all of us have a role to play in making Salt Lake City a more sustainable place to live.

That goes for our own operations as well. One of the major areas of focus for SLCgreen (as the City’s Sustainability Department is known) is helping SLC Corporation adopt best practices when it comes to those same sustainability measures we ask of our community.

That’s why we’re delighted to share with you some elements of our new internal Sustainability Policy, signed in January 2017 by Mayor Biskupski.

This policy affects Salt Lake City’s approximately 3,000 government employees, the community as a whole, our vendors, and the supply chains emanating from those vendors. By vowing to practice the best sustainable methods in all operations from prohibiting Styrofoam cups in break rooms, to carefully tracking our buildings’ energy usage, SLC is setting a community standard—a green standard.

We’d like to note that many of the guidelines in the Sustainability Policy were already in effect through various executive orders and policies, but this is the first time the best practices have been consolidated and turned into a comprehensive document.

If you’d like to read the whole policy, you can find it here.

Otherwise, read on for highlights . . . Continue reading →

Salt Lake City Employees Wrap Up a Year of Sustainability Actions through Empower SLC

by Maggie McCormick

The 12-month program promoting sustainability education and action for city employees, Empower SLC, has come to an end. After 12 themes and nearly 50 weekly topics, we hope the lessons learned will help SLC Corp employees adopt more sustainable practices into their everyday lives.

Empower SLC, which began in April 2016, was designed as a training platform by Sustain3 and implemented by the Sustainability Department for Salt Lake City’s nearly 3,000 employees. Our goal was to encourage sustainable practices amongst city staff. Each month, employees participated in monthly themes, such as waste reduction, energy conservation, water conservation, and clean air transportation, and completed weekly lessons and activities.

Continue reading →

Sustainability Highlights in the Mayor’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2018 Budget

Last night, Mayor Biskupski presented her proposed 2018 fiscal year budget to the City Council.**

In the proposed budget, the Mayor continues to press for cleaner air and other practical approaches to addressing climate change.

Last summer, the Mayor and City Council adopted a historic resolution to completely transition Salt Lake City’s community electricity needs to renewables by 2032 and to reduce carbon output by 80 percent by 2040.

The Mayor wants to keep the momentum going toward greater sustainability citywide.

First up: Initial steps will be taken in partnering with Rocky Mountain Power in establishing a large solar farm for cleaner City energy. This goal is part of a robust Clean Energy Cooperation Statement the City inked with RMP last year that requires cooperation in evaluating and implementing multiple projects to help the City achieve its clean energy targets. Continue reading →

Salt Lake City Publishes Plan to Tackle Climate Change

Salt Lake City Publishes Plan to Tackle Climate Change and Carbon Pollution

Climate Positive plan prioritizes regional collaboration, community participation, and innovation to reduce pollution and enhance local resilience to warming temperatures.

Salt Lake City has released a comprehensive plan entitled Climate Positive 2040, detailing ways the Capitol City will sustain its leadership role in addressing climate change.

Continue reading →

Good News on Solar in Utah

Google’s Project Sunroof shows Salt Lake City’s massive solar potential. Click the image to navigate to the Sunroof site to explore the city’s energy potential.

Did you know that more solar energy reaches Earth in just five days than all of the fossil fuel reserves combined? Harnessing that solar energy is a critical part of switching to renewable energy and creating a more sustainable community, especially for sunny Utah.

And while the $2,000 state solar tax credit is set to phase out by 2021, there’s still enormous room for growth.

Continue reading →

Join Local and International Leaders For 2 Day Sustainability Summit

SLCgreen is proud to be a part of the 8th annual Intermountain Sustainability Summit. Our Department Director Vicki Bennett and City Energy Project Advisor Wendy Lee will be speaking on the 17th. To register for the Summit click here to view student and professional registration rates.

Continue reading →

Salt Lake City and Utah Clean Energy Release 10 Year Solar Deployment Plan

by Avery Driscoll

Solar’s been in the news a lot lately. Tax incentives, rate structures, and more have been keeping policy makers, utility staff, and renewable advocates busy.

One reason is that solar is growing at an exponential rate! In fact, Utah is now the 16th largest solar producer in the country.

Our state’s rooftop solar energy production has grown from one-tenth of a megawatt to an estimated 140 megawatts in just ten years. This means that the market for rooftop solar power has grown by 140,000% in a decade, and that doesn’t even include the increase in utility-scale production!

In order to ensure that solar production can continue to grow, the local non-profit Utah Clean Energy recently released A 10 Year Solar Deployment Plan for Utah, which was produced in partnership with Salt Lake City. Continue reading →