Salt River Project is now receiving renewable energy from the recently completed Cove Fort Geothermal Project in Beaver County, Utah.
In 2012, SRP signed a 20-year agreement with Massachusetts-based Enel Cove Fort, LLC to purchase the output of the 25-megawatt plant. The geothermal power generated by the project will offset enough carbon dioxide emissions each year to equal removing 15,000 cars from the road.
A geothermal power plant produces electricity from naturally occurring heat below Earth’s surface. The Cove Fort project will utilize binary cycle technology, allowing access to regions with lower temperature geothermal resources. Geothermal energy is considered renewable energy because no fuel is consumed and the energy is from a naturally occurring source.
“Geothermal energy is an extremely valuable product and it greatly enhances our sustainable portfolio,” said John Sullivan, SRP’s chief resource planning executive. “It is one of the only renewable-energy technologies that can provide energy for our customers around the clock.”
Under SRP’s Sustainable Portfolio goals, SRP must meet 20 percent of its retail electricity requirements through sustainable resources by the year 2020. SRP’s sustainable portfolio is currently providing more than 10 percent of retail energy needs with sustainable resources such as solar, wind, landfill gas, geothermal, biomass, hydro and energy-efficiency measures.
SRP is the largest provider of electricity to the greater Phoenix area, serving more than 980,000 electric customers.
