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HERRIMAN — The thick pollution that settles over the Salt Lake Valley during winter is as familiar a sight to Utahns as the snow they hope will clear it away.
Each year, the smog returns as the inversion traps pollution from cars, homes and buildings in the valley. In fact, homes and buildings are responsible for 40% of the air pollution along the Wasatch Front, according to Utah Clean Energy’s Kate Bowman.
For Dell Loy Hansen, founder and CEO of Utah-based real estate company Wasatch Group (and owner of MLS's Real Salt Lake), this was unacceptable.
“He basically said he doesn’t want to build buildings anymore that contribute to the air quality issues along the Wasatch Front,” said William Comeau, managing director of customer innovations at Rocky Mountain Power.
So Wasatch Group decided to team up with Rocky Mountain Power, and a couple of other partners, to create a building that wouldn’t worsen the hazy skies. And thus, Soleil Lofts was born.
Soleil Lofts is a 600-unit, all-electric apartment complex in Herriman that, if all goes to plan, will attribute more than 75% of its energy usage to solar power and become a testing ground for a new technology solution that will allow Rocky Mountain Power to manage excess solar energy, Comeau explained.
Each of the apartments at Soleil Lofts has a battery that stores extra solar energy during the day for outages — not a wholly unique technology. The difference lies in how those batteries are used: Rocky Mountain Power will have the ability to draw energy from the batteries and use it to manage the electricity grid. The utility company can redistribute the extra energy during peak times when it’s needed and keep the grid stable.
Comeau calls it a battery grid management system, but the catchier name used by Rocky Mountain Power is “virtual power plant.”
“(Using the virtual power plant), you can integrate more renewables for the future and have it continue to keep our costs low for customers and help us keep the lights on. Because the more renewables you add, the tougher it is to manage the grid,” Comeau said.
The batteries, which last about four to five times longer than non-utility scale batteries, store about 20 kilowatts of energy — a little less than an average household’s daily usage. Comeau also believes the complex could, at some point, use 100% renewable energy — depending on future decisions by Wasatch Group.
Residents began moving into the apartments in September 2019, and the final building in the complex is set for completion by December of next year.
“The overall utility costs for them are lower … than if it was a traditional building with natural gas and electric,” Comeau said.
The cost of the building’s construction, however, is still unknown. Wasatch Group did not respond to KSL.com’s requests for comment. And while the complex’s website doesn’t list rent pricing, apartment.com lists a studio apartment for a little over $1,000 a month and a three-bedroom for a little under $2,000 a month.
The apartment complex recently won the 2019 Project of the Year from Utility Dive, a news publication for energy and utility executives. The award recognizes innovative projects that are transforming the industry.
"The people and organizations that win the Dive Awards are trailblazers and leaders in their markets," Davide Savenije, editor-in-chief of Utility Dive's publisher Industry Dive, said in a news release. "Their achievements in 2019 are shaping the future of where the latest strategies and trends are going."
And Comeau, at least, believes this is the direction of the future.
“This is customer-driven. We’re responding to customers wanting to improve the air quality, and we’re seeing much more of that,” he said.
