Report: Clean energy will be a boon for Utah
Utah can clean up on clean energy.
A new report says investments in energy efficiency and renewables would bring thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars if the state meets Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s clean-energy goals.
Huntsman's energy adviser, Dianne Nielson, commissioned the study, which is a cost-benefit analysis of the governor's dual push to pump up energy efficiency 20 percent by 2015 and make renewables 20 percent of electricity sales by 2020.
At a preliminary briefing Thursday morning, Nielson said the state's recently mapped renewable-energy zones make it clear where alternative-energy investments should go. The full report won't be ready for another two to three weeks.
The state expects to funnel $34 million from the federal stimulus package toward clean-energy projects. That package also includes loan guarantees that would provide investment incentives.
Utah Clean Energy, the nonprofit Salt Lake City-based organization that wrote the report, estimated that energy savings and renewables could meet all of Utah's projected energy-demand growth through 2020.
The investment could net nearly 7,000 new jobs, churn $310 million in net earnings, add $300 million to the state's gross domestic product and save consumers $940 million by 2020, the study says.
"We're ready for business," Nielson said.
If clean energy made up 20 percent of Utah's power mix, coal would remain the biggest contributor at 53 percent. Hydroelectricity would crank out 8 percent, natural gas 7 percent, and power purchases 12 percent.
The report assumed that at least 90 percent of energy-efficiency spending would stay in the state, as would 80 percent of the financing. That would keep profits in Utah, said Marshall Goldberg, a resource planner and policy analyst with MRG & Associates of Nevada City, Calif.
Obstacles in the way of Huntsman's goals include a lack of incentives to lure investment and regulatory rules that block the ability to add transmission capability in advance of power projects, a kind of chicken-egg problem that can kill renewable energy proposals.
Renewable projects would be small and would develop over time, Nielson said, but none would work without access to the grid -- or help from the Legislature, which has the ability to create incentives through new laws.
By the numbers:
A new report shows Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s green-energy goals would yield:
- 7,000 new jobs.
- $310 million in net earnings.
- $300 million more to the state's gross domestic product.
- $940 million in consumer savings.
Source: Utah Clean Energy
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