NEWS RELEASE
May 24, 2011

The U.S. Department of Energy has recognized the Solar Salt Lake Project with the “Mountain Mover Award,” for helping to remove barriers to solar energy. A collaboration of entities (see below), including Salt Lake County, Utah Clean Energy, and Salt Lake City came together to form Solar Salt Lake, with the underlying goal to make solar energy financially attractive and feasible for citizens, businesses and local government. The award recognizes Solar Salt Lake’s work to make Utah solar projects more efficient and cost-effective, specifically by improving Utah’s interconnection standards and clearing the way for third-party financing in the state.

“I am proud to see this recognition of Solar Salt Lake’s efforts to bring clean energy into our state,” said Mayor Peter Corroon. “Our collaboration will help make Utah a leader in the solar industry while improving our quality of life.”

Salt Lake City also plays a key role in Solar Salt Lake.

“Salt Lake City is working to install photovoltaics on its facilities to take advantage of our region’s abundant, carbon-free energy source and to lead out as a model for future construction in the Capital City,” said Mayor Ralph Becker. “At the same time, our work to eliminate barriers for solar installations through our sustainability code revision initiative is moving forward, and we continue to explore ways to encourage the adoption of solar energy resources both in our community and across the state.”

Utah Clean Energy has been one of the driving forces to bring groups together to advance solar power throughout the state.

“Receiving the ‘Mountain Mover’ award is testament to the fact that the Solar Salt Lake Project has been tremendously successful at removing notable barriers to the adoption of solar energy,” said Sara Baldwin, Senior Policy & Regulatory Associate of Utah Clean Energy. “We are honored to serve as the project manager and collaborate with such innovative partners who are truly committed to making solar mainstream in the Salt Lake Valley.”

Among its accomplishments, Solar Salt Lake has recently completed a fully-scoped city and county level Solar Implementation Plan to facilitate at least 10 megawatts of new solar installations in government, commercial, industrial and residential sectors by 2015.

Background on Solar Salt Lake:
Solar Salt Lake is a collaborative effort among Salt Lake County, Utah Clean Energy, Salt Lake City, the Utah State Energy Program, Ballard Spahr, Interstate Renewable Council, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Kennecott Land, with support from the Utah Solar Association. The effort is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar America Cities Initiative. Salt Lake County/Salt Lake City, and partners were designated as one of the first 25 Solar America Cities by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2007.

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