Utah

Mining group Rio Tinto said it will spend nearly $3 million on a facility in Utah to recover tellurium, a critical mineral used in solar panels.

Also in the brief: A rural Virginia county grapples with the pros and cons of a proposed $200 million, 149 MW solar farm, Utah’s solar advocates plan to fight decision by state regulators.

In a long-fought battle, Utah’s PSC just decided to lower the rooftop solar export credit rate from 9.2¢/kWh to about 5.8¢/kWh. Both solar advocates and the utility are expected to be unhappy with the decision.

Solar from customer roofs in Utah is worth somewhere between 1.5 cents/kWh and 22.6 cents/kWh, depending on your calculations and who you ask — a ridiculously wide range.

Also in the brief: Solar in schools

Facebook now has contracts for 694 MW of solar power in Utah (63% of the state’s solar generation capacity) in its pursuit of becoming entirely renewably-powered by the end of this year.

Also in the brief: San José Clean Energy and Peninsula Clean Energy have launched a joint request for offers for the purchase of 1 million MWh annually of new, long-term renewable energy.

The utility giant is making this procurement in accordance with its 2019 integrated resource plan, under which Pacificorp intends to add 11 GW of wind and solar by 2038, with an additional 2.8 GW of battery storage.

The Bureau of Land Management “has ignored most possibilities” for utility-scale solar “on its vast land holdings across the solar-rich Southwest,” says a paper. Renewable energy development accounts for less than 1% of economic activity on BLM lands, while oil and gas account for 70%, according to BLM data.

The partnership would pursue cost-effective solar projects that benefit ratepayers and provide “environmental justice and economic equity to the Navajo Nation,” after the city received power from the coal-burning Navajo Generating Station for decades—and paid less than fair value for coal, land leasing, and water, say advocates.