Energy is a core focus of Summit County’s climate change action and sustainability commitments. Homes, apartments, businesses, and County facilities are powered largely by energy supplied by Rocky Mountain Power and Enbridge Gas. To advance human health, and capture environmental benefits and financial savings benefits, Summit County focuses on promoting energy conservation and efficiency, and the transition to renewable energy. From demonstrating how energy efficiency and rooftop solar can work at County facilities to pursuing new programs to make renewable energy available at scale, Summit County demonstrates its commitment to the energy transition by both adopting technologies and educating the public.
Energy also powers cars, trucks, and buses on Summit County roads. Visit the Transportation page for details on commitments to electrified and alternative transportation.
How much energy County facilities use is influenced by how the building was constructed, how it is maintained over time, and the behaviors of occupants and tenants. Since 2016, new construction has been aligned with the state’s High Performance Building Standard. Over a dozen retrofit projects have focused on reducing energy use, including 12 LED upgrade projects and retrocommissioning efforts.
Summit County works with many partners to make information available to property owners, businesses, homeowners, and renters about ways to reduce energy and save money. Current programs incorporating energy education and resources include the Energy and Water Conservation Toolkits, Green Business Program, shared promotion of Wattsmart and Thermwise utility incentive programs, and more.
Better understanding what challenges households in Summit County face when it comes time to pay their electricity and gas bills has been part of recent efforts to better understand something called “energy burden” in Summit County. Staff are working to use this information in health department plans and low-income assistance efforts as part of Utah Renewable Communities. Struggling to pay your utility bills? Check out the HEAT assistance program.
Nearly all electricity used at County facilities comes from renewable energy. A total of 503 kW of solar has been installed on County facilities. Because this solar produces just a fraction of the energy used within these buildings, Summit County is also one of six commercial customers of the Elektron solar project, an 80-megawatt solar farm in Tooele County providing electricity for the operations of Summit County, Park City, and Salt Lake City government facilities, and the operations of Utah Valley University, Park City Mountain Resort, and Deer Valley.
At the same time that the County increases its use of renewable energy, it is also important to reduce the barriers that homeowners, renters, and businesses face in accessing the benefits of clean energy. Summit County is actively engaged in the development of Utah Renewable Communities, a collaborative of 19 Utah cities and counties working to bring a new choice of clean energy to homes and businesses. Summit County staff have also worked to clarify solar in County code, helping to earn the County SolSmart designation.
Starting in 2024, the Public Health Emergency Preparedness team piloted using portable batteries and solar to power drive-through vaccine clinic operations. With the success of this pilot, the team is actively working to see how future public health events and public health emergency operations can be powered by solar and battery storage first, before relying on gas or diesel-powered generators.
Summit County and Park City successfully launched and ran Summit Community Power Works for several years to engage the community in taking energy saving actions
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