(Correction: The printed version of this article incorrectly reported the size and scope of ECG's Utah Solar 1 project. A 300 megawatt project is planned.)
Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Sept. 6, 2023 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
Project to be built on 1,600 acres near Sugarville
Millard County planning commissioners will consider a conditional use permit this week for a 285-megawatt solar energy generating facility on 1,600 acres along North Jones Road near Sugarville.
The applicant, Intermountain Solar Plant, LLC, plans to send electricity from the $256 million facility to an Intermountain Power Plant switchyard when the project is completed.
According to the company’s permit application, the facility is expected to operate for about 30 years, generating some $70 million in property tax revenue to the county.
The company estimated construction would involve between 700 and 900 workers, but only about a dozen full-time employees would be hired to operate the facility once construction is complete.
The county is expected to host multiple renewable energy projects in the coming years as IPP Renewed—the name for the work underway to replace IPP’s existing coal units with a green hydrogen and natural gas-fired power plant—nears completion in 2025.
According to an online information portal maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power— technically IPP’s largest customer and the agency behind IPP Renewed—a number of solar and battery power generating facilities are slated to interconnect with the new gas plant in the coming years. In fact, green hydrogen production requires renewable energy to power the
industrial hydrogen-making electrolyzers IPP will depend upon.
An LADWP list of IPP interconnection requests shows five projects with commercial operation dates already set. All five projects, which range from between 300 to 400-megawatt facilities each, plan to hook into IPP’s switchyard.
It’s not clear from the list whether Intermountain Solar Plant is among those projects—the applicants aren’t named. According to the list, two 300-megawatt solar facilities will become operational in 2025, two 400-megawatt ones in 2026 and one 324-megawatt facility in 2027, all located in the Delta area.
Another six projects, mostly in Delta, but also in other parts of the county, are also listed, but are still in application or study phases of their interconnection requests. A seventh project listed for Baker, Nevada, also in the interconnection application phase, shows plans in that area for an 800 megawatt solar, wind and battery facility.
More recently, a 300-megawatt facility planned for north of Delta has gotten local attention. The $405 million Utah Solar 1 project is planned to be built on about 1,700 acres of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration property. The property is contained within a county-designated community development project area (CDA). Solar 1 representatives have lately sought a series of property tax breaks.
This has caused some controversy as Millard School District board members voted in May to give the company a 50-percent property tax break. County commissioners, however, refused to even consider such a tax break because average homeowners have lately watched their own tax bills sky rocket the past few years. Commissioners also argued the project would still be built whether it provided tax relief or not.
City officials in both Fillmore and Delta, though they have little to do with the subject, also have said they are against supplying the solar project any tax breaks.
A resolution set to enshrine the school district’s agreement on taxes for Solar 1—the district was waiting to see if other taxing entities such as the fire district would come on board—has not yet been approved.
Meanwhile, planning commissioners will hear Intermountain Solar Plant’s presentation on Wednesday and either vote to give county commissioners a positive or negative recommendation for the project’s permitting. Planning commissioners might also seek more information before taking a vote on the matter.
