Tiny patch of Blue Sky | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The editorial "Powering renewable energy" (Our View, Feb. 15) states: "Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Sky program is promoting alternative energy in Utah better than any government initiative." An untrue statement doesn't become acceptable merely because of good intentions.

In fact, all of the Blue Sky solar installations taken together are less than the number of kilowatts produced by the array on the Salt Palace, a government facility. IKEA, albeit a private entity, installed more solar panels on its local store last year than Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Sky program did, funded by a combination of its own money and government incentives.

Not to knock Blue Sky, but local Rocky Mountain Power will not even buy power from new wind energy projects because of price. Unless and until mandatory Utah renewable energy portfolio standards are passed, this will not change.

Neither Rocky Mountain Power nor the state of Utah is really renewable energy friendly, but the combination of state and federal incentives is exactly the reason that U.S. solar energy production more than doubled from 2011 to 2012.

Utah Rocky Mountain Power gets credit for no more than a bare sliver of that increase.

Darrell Prows

Murray