The non-profit Salt River Project is not bound by state rules to produce electricity from renewable sources, but the utility announced plans on Friday to ramp up its voluntary goals of renewable energy and energy efficiency from 15% in 2025 to 20% by 2020. Ryan Randazzo writes in the Arizona Republic that management is taking the plan to its board of directors for approval. [right, credit SPR]
The Arizona Corporation Commission had previously set a goal of a 15% Renewable Portfolio Standard, that includes distributed generation - ie, renewable energy generated at customers homes or businesses - which has encouraged utilities to subsidize these systems to limit the need for building large, centralized power plants.
The new RPS approved by ACC included geothermal energy for the first time, and we assume SRP will also include geothermal in its program. The company's renewable energy web page says,
SRP has signed a 30-year agreement to purchase the entire output of the Hudson Ranch 1 project, a new 49-megawatt (MW) geothermal power generation project located in the Imperial Valley of Southern California. Construction of the plant is underway. The builder of the facility, EnergySource LLC, expects it to become commercially operational in early 2012.