Salt Lake City Gets Federal Funds to Grow Use of Solar Energy

None by Eric Ray

(KCPW News) The U.S. Department of Energy is giving Salt Lake City $200,000 in funding and another $400,000 in technical support over the next two years in an effort to increase the use of solar power in the valley.

Salt Lake City is one of 13 cities to receive funding from the DOE as part of its Solar America Initiative. The goal of the Solar Salt Lake Project is to install 10,000 new solar systems in residents and commercial properties by the year 2015.

The cost of solar power is still a factor to many private residents and businesses. Tom Kimbis of the DOE says the goal of the Solar America Initiative is to reach grid parity between coal and solar energy by 2015.

According to Carol Hunter, Vice President of Rocky Mountain Power, power generated by newly constructed coal burning plants would cost nearly seven cents per kilowatt-hour. The current cost of solar power is between 10 and 13 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson says that current tax credits and subsidies to be introduced by the program could make solar power an option for more people.

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