Floating solar installation planned for Utah water treatment plant
C&I

Floating solar installation planned for Utah water treatment plant

Mountain Regional Water Special Service District, a special service district of the state of Utah that serves drinking water to the Snyderville Basin area of Park City, has awarded Ameresco a contract to design and install a floating solar photovoltaic array site.

This award precedes the district’s selection for a grant of $400,000 from Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky program for the district’s Signal Hill Water Treatment Plant. The array will be owned by the district and will be placed on the treatment plant’s holding pond and provide electricity to power the water treatment plant.

Ameresco’s project design involves the deployment of a 589.7-kWDC capacity floating solar array. The system will be integrated behind the meter with Rocky Mountain Power, allowing it to serve electricity directly to the treatment plant. Once installed, the floating solar array system is designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 384 metric tons annually, which is equivalent to saving 43,211 gallons of gasoline per year or preventing the burning of 430,160 pounds of coal, Ameresco said.

Rendering represents Mountain Regional Water’s floating solar array project with Ameresco which is designed to power a water treatment facility in Park City, Utah with locally generated renewable energy. (Photo: Business Wire)

“Traditional ground or rooftop solar wasn’t an option for us at this facility, but this innovative floating solar installation makes use of an untapped resource,” said Chris Braun, Mountain Regional Chief Technology Officer. “This is one more piece of the puzzle for us to get to a ‘Net-Zero’ energy goal as we strive to be responsible stewards for the community and the environment. “

Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky program awarded this project to the Mountain Regional Water Service District as one of a dozen community-based renewable energy projects awarded in 2023. Blue Sky is an opt-in program that gives Rocky Mountain Power customers the option to match all or part of their energy use with renewable energy, reducing their carbon footprints and driving demand for new renewable energy in the West. Since 2006, Blue Sky’s 56,000 participants have helped fund over 200 new, community-based renewable energy projects in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming communities. The systems include solar, wind, geothermal, and other forms of renewable energy.

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The completion of this project is designed to offset 92% of the energy consumed from the grid and reduce the district’s energy costs by 80%. The new floating solar array system will also produce 887,712 kW-hours of solar energy annually to the local power supply.

Construction is anticipated to begin in June 2024 and be completed by September 2024.