Renewable Energy in Beaver County

On October 7th, FCAOG hosted a field tour of renewable energy developments and resources concentrated in Beaver County. FCAOG was thrilled to partner with the Congressional Western Caucus to host Congressmen Christ Stewart, Dan Newhouse, Markwayne Mullin, Representatives from the US Economic Development Administration, Utah Association of Counties, and the Six County Association of Governments to discuss development on public lands, tour renewable power generation facilities, and learn about current research endeavors with tremendous future potential.

Beaver County is home to a impressive concentration of renewable energy resources, with a prominent cluster located on the sprawling rangeland just outside Milford. Throughout the day we learned about the multiple wind, solar and geothermal energy production facilities and toured the Align Renewable Natural Gas facility. The Align RNG plant is a collaboration between Dominion Energy and Smithfield Farms which captures renewable natural gas (methane) from commercial hog operations for use in commercial power generation and consumer heating. This process offers a productive solution for greenhouse gases that would otherwise be released into the environment as a biproduct of hog farming. Align produces 236,000 dekatherms of RNG annually, which is enough to heat 3,000 homes and is equivalent to taking 23,000 cars off the road.

During the mobile tour, Dr. Joseph Moore presented on the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE), a cutting edge field laboratory where researchers can test, develop, and enhance advanced geothermal systems. FORGE is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Utah and sponsorship by U.S. Department of Energy. investigations began in 2020 after initial project construction and will run through 2024. The project is poised to eventually become a privately operated facility, creating clean, efficient, and renewable power as well as an abundance of high paying jobs for the community.