BOISE — Idaho Power is going green, again.
"We have one of the cleanest portfolios in the nation, and that's what's pushing us in this direction, and we think our customers want this," said vice president of customer operations and business development for Idaho Power Adam Richins.
They're not new the green scene. In 2009 the company set their goal to reduce carbon emissions. Since then, they've made clean energy strides. Their current energy portfolio shows roughly 18-percent of energy sources comes from coal. They work with three coal plant owners and are planning to exit 2 of them by 2025.
"In 25 years we think there will be, we'll be able to utilize solar, and storage and other technologies will exist to meet that other 30 percent plus hopefully," said Richins.
As part of the new clean energy commitment, they're also entering into a solar agreement for 120 megawatts of solar near the Nevada border. They say it's at the lowest price they know of in the nation, which means rates shouldn't climb up with the new initiative.
"On average a general rule of them is a megawatt is about 500 homes in terms of energy," said Richins.
So multiply that by 120, and that's nearly 60,000 homes running on clean energy.
“Customers number one focus is we want to make sure our rates are cost-effective, number two is reliability, and we’re starting to hear more and number three is this goal of clean energy," said Richins, "and we think our customers want this and that they’ll be happy to know we can get this by maintaining our rates and our reliability.”
