The Lehi City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution authorizing the amended transaction schedule for the Steel Solar 1A Project.

The Steel Solar 1A Project is a 40-megawatt solar photovoltaic generation facility, to be located in Box Elder County, that will provide power to 14 Utah cities.

The initial resolution to participate in this project was approved in December 2020, however, due to large contract changes, the project came back to the city council for additional approval. The total cost of the project has increased from $31.45 per megawatt hour to $34.66 per megawatt hour — close to a 10% increase.

“Because of supply chain delays and other issues bringing solar panels into the United States, we’ve seen delays,” said Joel Eves, Lehi City power director. “It was supposed to come online before now… it’s now slated to be September of 2023.”

The Steel Solar 1A Project is expected to be commercially operational by Sept. 30, 2023, although the amended transaction schedule states that the project could be completed as late as March 31, 2024. A 25-year delivery term will commence once the project is operational.

Lehi is the largest participant in the project by far, with a 25% entitlement share.

The second largest participants are Heber and Bountiful, each with a 16.15% entitlement share.

Councilmember Chris Condie expressed concern that the energy provided by the Steel Solar 1A Project may not be enough to compensate for the impending closure of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in New Mexico, as well as the impending closure of the Intermountain Power Plant in Delta. The Intermountain plant is transitioning into a hybrid natural gas and hydrogen plant.

Both of these power plants account for a significant part of Lehi’s power portfolio.

“How does this compare to what we’re losing next year?” Condie asked. “[In] cost, but also the volume of power we’re losing from the coal plant shutting down, and how does this help us?”

According to Eves, comparing the power generated by the solar project to the power generated by coal plants would be like comparing apples to oranges.

“We have a 10-megawatt entitlement, but the efficiency of this project is going to be about 30% where a coal plant is going to be about 90%,” he said. “So you’re having a much larger capital cost, but it’s running more, so it’s not the same, and each plant has its own characteristics.”

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