A net-zero goal doesn’t eliminate all emissions but rather reduces them through various measures, and offsets those that remain through alternatives, such as optimizing water delivery – the city’s number one power use. The city has also moved toward an electric transit fleet, helped implement an electric bike share program and supports the Park City Community Foundation’s zero food waste efforts.
Protecting open spaces also helps fight climate change through carbon sequestration and Park City has preserved almost 10,000 acres of open space.
Park City Municipal Environmental Sustainability Manager Luke Cartin says the city hit its first goal a bit late was due to the pandemic and the difficulty in finishing a large-scale solar farm west of the Great Salt Lake. Now that it’s fully operational, he said they’re focused on the 2030 goal.
“We're chugging along, right. There's a lot of very interesting things happening, actually, fairly quickly right now," he said.
Like other places, Utah is headed toward an energy crisis due to increased power demand. Cartin said with a future need for four times the amount of electricity that can currently be generated today, the state legislature will likely be taking up energy in next year’s legislative session.
“The state of Utah legislators are asking Rocky Mountain Power to look at what costs and what steps would need to be done to separate Rocky Mountain Power from Pacific Corp.,” he said. “When you look at what's going on in the world of electricity, it is a wild, wild time, and what's going to be happening a year from now could be a different trajectory.” It's going to be a wild and wooly legislative session like it usually is, but this year for energy, it's going to be nuts," he said.
Almost all of the electricity produced in Utah in 2000 came from the state’s rich coal reserves. Today, according to the U.S. Energy Information administration, less than half [46%] of Utah’s power comes from coal.
Cartin said as many as 15% of all new car sales are for electric vehicles [EVs]. With ever-increasing numbers, Park City’s development code now requires that all new construction must have conduit laid and electric breakers tied in. For commercial businesses, at least half of all parking spaces have to be EV ready.
“And then if you're building a lot, over 100 spaces, you actually need to install EV chargers as well,” he said. “So, we're trying to future proof it on that side too. Of saying, hey, as we’re look at parking, or as parking gets moved around, we should make sure that there are conduits in so now you're just pulling conduit and installing the chargers."
Park City currently has 45 level two electric vehicle chargers installed around town. Cartin said right now, he says it makes more financial sense to offer free charging, saying that the credit card fees wouldn’t get recouped for a $3 charging session.
