$1 Billion Solar and Battery Storage Project Breaks Ground In Utah

rPlus Energies has broken ground on a $1 billion solar + battery storage project in east-central Utah. Electrek reports: The Green River Energy Center in Emery County, Utah, is a 400-megawatt (MW) solar and 400 MW/1,600-megawatt-hour battery storage project that will supply power to western electric utility PacifiCorp under a power purchase agreement. EliTe Solar is supplying solar panels, and Tesla is providing battery storage. Sundt Construction is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the project. Securing over $1 billion in construction debt financing in July, the Green River project is expected to create around 500 jobs. Salt Lake City-based rPlus Energies gives the target completion date as 2026.

Instead of nuclear

[Smonster]

It is worth noting that politicians and power brokers had been trying to build a nuclear power plant near Green River, Utah for decades. It would have been a disaster on my levels. It just is not the place for it. No backup water source if anything goes wrong. The water taken from the over allocated Colorado River tributary would not have been trivial. And any water they would have managed to put back in the river would have been a lot warmer which would have decimated the fish. This project makes way more sense for the area. i say that as someone who is pretty bullish on nuclear, in the right places. Really, Utah could and should, be a Saudi Arabia of photovoltaic and thermal solar energy. Large swaths of the state of the state are very sunny, hot, and largely devoid of life.

Re:

[Szeraax]

To add to this, we're seeing some very interesting research about solar farms INCREASING the biodiversity of the areas that they are located in. Seems to be a combination related to shade, native plants, pollinators, etc. that benefit.

That's a BIG win, IF we have the distribution to manage it well.