Park City and Summit County are working to achieve ambitious climate goals: to reach net 100% net renewable electricity by 2030. With support from the Park City Community Foundation’s Climate Fund, Utah Clean Energy is proud to partner with these forward-thinking local governments to help them achieve their goals.
Park City and Summit County are among 23 communities in Utah that have signed up to participate in the Community Renewable Energy Act – an agreement to work with Rocky Mountain Power to create an equitable and effective Community Renewable Energy Plan. This plan will determine which resources will be procured to meet the new demand for renewable energy: solar, wind, geothermal, and/or increased energy efficiency.
Decarbonizing our Homes and Buildings
Powering a community with 100% renewable energy goes far beyond wind and solar farms. The first step is actually reducing energy use on a community-wide level, by making homes and buildings ultra-energy efficient. Park City’s homes and businesses make up almost 60% of the communities’ carbon emissions. While yes, the Community Renewable Energy Program will allow for the electricity supplied to our buildings to be renewable, we can cut costs and reduce energy demand by starting with increasing energy efficiency. It is also critical that we electrify as many buildings as possible, so that our new renewable resources can power a larger portion of the community. Electrification combined with efficiency will allow us to ultimately decarbonize our buildings, leading to lower emissions at a lower cost.
Community Advisory Committee
In 2020, Utah Clean Energy began convening a diverse group of stakeholders to prioritize decarbonization strategies that work for Park City and Summit County. The Community Advisory Committee is comprised of members of the building community, affordable housing community, development community, city and county staff, and members of the public to ensure that all selected strategies are locally relevant and equitable. Once the strategies have been selected, the Community Advisory Committee will work with the community to develop implementation actions that fairly hold stakeholders accountable for next steps and implementation. A full timeline of the project can be viewed below. To learn more about the Community Advisory Committee, and how you can get involved, please email Utah Clean Energy Community Program Coordinator, Ryan Anderson, and ryan@utahcleanenergy.org.
