After two years of construction, an 800-megawatt solar farm/battery storage project has begun generating energy in Emery County.
Dubbed the Green River Energy Center, the project spans over 2,500 acres (about 4 miles) of Utah’s desert, becoming the largest solar and storage project in PacifiCorp’s service territory: Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and northern California.
The project will generate 400 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity and have 1.6 gigawatts hours of energy storage, Sundt Renewables President Tom Dodson said. Sundt worked as a contractor for rPlus Energies on the project.
Sundt Construction, the project’s contractor, installed 996,000 solar panels and 385 miles of underground cables. The idea for the Green River Energy Center began nearly a decade ago.
“Green River Energy Center represents the kind of large-scale energy investment we need to deliver reliable energy, support rural Utah and help power the next generation of prosperity across our state,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement.
Utah Sen. John Curtis added that the project strengthens the state’s energy infrastructures and “helps ensure reliable, affordable power for families and businesses across the West.”
The Green River Energy Center is proof that Utah still knows how to build.
rPlus Energies’ 400-megawatt solar and battery storage project is making a major contribution to energy abundance and affordability under Operation Gigawatt. 🔋
But this is about more than energy. When… pic.twitter.com/llufu1kLBi
The Green River Energy Center has locked in $1.6 billion in funding — $1.1 billion in construction debt and more than $500 million in tax equity, Cliff Smith, the COO of rPlus Energies, said.
The CEO and founder of Nextpower, Dan Shugar, told the Deseret News that 100% of the steel used in the Green River Energy Center was made in the U.S., as well as a “vast majority” of all other materials.
Nextpower is a California-based company that manufactures intelligent solar-tracking systems. Shugar and his team helped the project’s developer, rPlus Energies, design their solar farm to include smart-tracking mounts and software that turns the panels toward the sun throughout the day to maximize energy yields.
“COVID was a bit of a catalyst,” he said. “There was sort of a meltdown of global logistics.”
Shugar said following the COVID-19 pandemic, his company “reimagined” their supply chain and started manufacturing in the United States.
“COVID was a bit of a catalyst,” he said. “There was sort of a meltdown of global logistics.”
In the 10 years leading up to the pandemic, supply chains were reliable in terms of cost and speed. “Both of those things went out the window” as the world shut down in 2020.
The issue was compounded by global conflicts in the Middle East and environmental issues in the Panama Canal.
“We took that opportunity to really increase domestic manufacturing in the states to serve the local market,” Shugar said. “And that provided other benefits.”
U.S.-made steel is significantly cleaner than steel made overseas. “In the U.S., it uses an electric-arc furnace process, which uses predominantly scrap and recycled steel — it’s way cleaner than using a blast furnace with iron ore and products from coal,” he said, adding that customers also benefit from a greater level of certainty in avoiding tariffs.
“The tariff policy has been extremely volatile, and so the customers have much greater certainty of stability of supply that they’re protected from wildly oscillating tariffs,” Shugar said.
On Monday during the project’s on-site ceremony, project partners said they donated $375,000 in scholarship money for local students.
Bayley Hedglin, a development officer from Utah State University, said that 30 students in the area have already benefited from the commitment.
Project partners also donated $45,000 to the Ferron Fire Department.
While fires in solar farms are uncommon, their high-voltage infrastructure increases risk minimally.
