CLICK HERE for pdf version
Cedar City Rotary Club
May 9, 2017
Meeting:
Club
President David Westwood conducted the meeting, opening with the singing of God Bless America. Gene Hotinger led The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and Rex Shipp offered the
prayer. David led the singing of Smile.
David
welcomed guests Dr. Kunle Alarape from Nigeria and his guest, a SUU student
from The Republic of Congo.
District Conference in Park City –
May 18-20, 2017: President David reminded everyone of the
District 5420 Annual Conference and encouraged those who have yet to register
to do so. Jon Huntsman, Sr. will be
honored for his service at the Conference.
Speakers will inspire and motivate on Friday and Saturday mornings. Great local service projects on Friday
afternoon will be followed by a BBQ and Line Dance. On Saturday afternoon, you’ll select from
optional activities and enjoy your weekend in Park City. Register online at www.utahrotary.org and join fellow Rotarians for a celebration of the great work we do! If
you have questions or need help registering, contact President David.
Annual Rotary Benefit Golf
Tournament: Glade confirmed and solicited additional
volunteers for the May 10th event at Cedar Ridge Golf Course. Volunteers are to report at 11:00 am to
register and promote door prize donations.
The golf teams will tee off at 1 pm.
Winning door prize tickets can be redeemed at 5 pm and team prizes after
all teams have reported their scores.
Happy Dollars: President David filled in for Sergeant-at-Arms Roger
Thomas. David shared humorous quotes
from Order in the Courtroom which is a collection of outlandish questions
and/or answers from real courtroom experiences.
Frank
Nichols offered Happy Dollars in appreciation for Ken Englehart whose pledge to
donate $1,000,000 to The Rotary
Foundation has been met. Ken
explained that the home he and Helen owned in Hurricane was finally purchased,
making the donation possible. Glade
Hamilton, 2015-2016 District Governor when Ken made his pledge, asked and
received a standing ovation for Ken.
Dave
Oberhelman was happy to report that four SUU Thunderbird football players have
been signed as free-agents to the NFL.
Neal Smith offered $$ in response to comments made about the Giants last
season; so far this season, their win-loss record is 11 – 22. Sherrie Hansen thanked Neal Smith for his
“heads-up” correcting her Facebook post about a University of Utah safety being
signed to the NFL. Sherrie explained she
interpreted the “S” for safety to mean Southern Utah.
Rex Shipp’s
Happy Dollars were for a family trip and gathering to Oregon where he oldest
daughter, her husband and four children live.
Todd Boyer’s $$ were for his second son’s departure for his LDS Mission
to Virginia Chesapeake. Todd also wished
all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day.
Program:
Gae Lynn Froyd introduced Mike Warner who is heading up our
area for Dominion Energy which
purchased Questar last fall. Mike has been with working in the energy
field for thirty-six years. He said he
began his career in nuclear, spent twenty years in coal and two years in
wind. He noted that the majority of his
career was in energy generation.
According to
Mike Warner, Dominion has 240,000 megawatts of power generating facilities,
12,000 miles of natural gas transmission and 6,490 miles of electric
transmission lines. It is publicly
traded and has a value of $42 billion.
Forty percent of the U.S. population lives in the area where Dominion is
located. Dominion’s acquisition of Questar Corp. forms a new utility giant
with 2.5 million electric customers and 2.3 million gas customers. The combined company will operate more than
15,500 of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 24,300
megawatts.
Salt Lake
City is now the Western hub for Dominion, which provides electrical and
natural-gas services throughout the mid-Atlantic region, making it one of the
country’s largest energy companies. Questar had nearly one million
customers, about 97% are based in Utah.
The other 3% are in Wyoming and Idaho.
Dominion’s solar energy profile is mostly in the West with Utah having
eight project sites including Milford.
Mike noted that power purchases agreements usually occur where there is
a law requiring energy sources and where the sun or wind is reliable. Iron County has over 320 days of sunshine
making it perfect for solar energy generation.
Mike’s PowerPoint photos demonstrated the solar panels and the automated
equipment that enabled them to follow the sun’s rays; thereby maximizing its
light as the power source. He said that
the biggest demand is in the morning and in the evening when solar needs to be
augmented with natural gas, etc. The
biggest operational challenge for a utility is maintaining the grid stability
during those peak usage times of morning and evening.
He said the
lifespan of an average solar site is twenty years and each year of operation
there is a degrading of the production capability. An 80 megawatt plot consists of 330,000 panels. One megawatt is enough power for 167
homes. The Newcastle site consists of
330,000 panels in the 400 acre-plus field.
In addition of the natural aging degradation, strong winds cause damage
and sometimes rip the panels off their mountings. Natural soiling cause of dust settling on the
panels requires cleaning. The panels are
angled so the snow usually slides off them.
The good news about solar panels is the cost going down. In 2009, the generation cost per watt was
$4.46; in 2016, the cost was $1.42.
Adjournment:
President Elect Todd Boyer thanked Mike Warner for his presentation and
led the affirmation of Rotary’s Four-Way
Test of the Things We Think, Say or Do and adjourned the meeting.
Upcoming Programs
May 16th: Our Rotary Exchange Student, Noemi, will be sharing her
experiences during her stay in Cedar City as a student at Cedar High School.
May 23rd: Kathy Wyatt, wife of SUU President Scott Wyatt, will be
discussing the new child care facility that is being built at Southern Utah
University.
May 30th: Frank Nichols and Paul Monroe are organizing a field trip to
water conservancy project sites. Plans
include a lunch at SWATC, followed by either a bus or vehicle caravan to
designated sites. Exact times, etc. will
be announced when finalized.
