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Rocky Mountain Power Proposing Subscriber Solar Program

Rocky Mountain Power
Typical solar farm. RMP's newly proposed subscriber farm will be 15 megawatts in capacity.

Rocky Mountain Power is hoping to soon offer customers a way to purchase all or part of their power from a solar source without having to put solar panels on their roof.The utility is proposing a Blue Sky subscriber solar program. It’s now seeking approval from the Utah Public Service Commission along with a request for proposals to build the 15 megawatt solar project to supply subscribers. Paul Murphy is spokesman for Rocky Mountain Power. He says the 40,000 current subscribers to Blue Sky show that people want more renewable energy choices.

“We hope that the program is so successful that we will have to build a lot more than 15 megawatts of solar power,” says Murphy.

Matt Pacenza is the executive director of HEAL Utah, a clean energy advocacy group. He says the organization appreciates RMP’s newest offering, but he says it’s not aggressive enough to significantly reduce the amount of fossil fuels being used by the company to generate electricity.

“We lag far behind other states which have managed to move in that direction more aggressively. It’s not crippling their economy, their rates aren’t skyrocketing;” explains Pacenza, “it’s sort of an orderly and smooth but much more aggressive transition to clean energy.”

Pacenza says customers have a say in what they are offered but they need to organize and let their voices be heard in their demand for more clean power.

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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