Utah company installs two solar-energy systems at U. of U.

The Sustainable Power Group, a Salt Lake City-based company involved in the development of alternative-energy systems, said it has installed solar-power generation systems on the rooftops of the Natural History Museum of Utah and the HPER East building at the University of Utah.

It said the museum's system is capable of generating 330-kilowatt hours, while the HPER East complex is a 263-kilowatt system. Together they will generate enough energy to power roughly 280 homes.

Combined, the two arrays consist of 2,470 photovoltaic panels covering 40,000 square feet of rooftop. The panels were manufactured in Memphis, Tenn.

The power group said it partnered with Okland Construction of Salt Lake City to build the systems and McCalmont Engineering of Campbell, Ca., for the design and engineering.

"We consider these projects to be a showcase of how a public entity and a private entity can work together to create sustainable energy, while at the same time saving the university money," said CEO Ryan Creamer of Sustainable Power Group.

Sustainable Power said it will own and operate the systems for 20 years and will sell the power to the university under the terms of a power purchase agreement.

It indicated that a "third-party ownership" arrangement was made possible through a $125,000 Blue Sky program grant from Rocky Mountain Power, as well as a $1 million grant awarded to the university through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.