The county will unveil plans next week for an expansive solar array atop the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center — so large it would cover six football fields — that experts believe will be the biggest of its kind in the nation. The Salt Palace array is expected to eclipse all other U.S. rooftop installations with the power to produce 2.6 megawatts of electricity — enough juice to keep the lights on and air conditioners humming in 261 average American homes.
Although the solar array is the brainchild of Salt Lake County — specifically, of Mayor Peter Corroon — it won’t be government-owned. Instead, the county will have a private company, NexGen, install the panels. NexGen will pay for the system, own the system and sell power at a fixed rate to the county. That means taxpayers won’t have to pay the installation cost (estimated at nearly $10 million) or shoulder the expense of regular maintenance.
And county government could see a drop in its overall power bill. Although the base rate will remain about the same, the county will save money in peak power costs by relying less on Rocky Mountain Power during summer scorchers when the sun is high and the air conditioners are cranking. The Salt Lake Tribune
