This opinion column was submitted by Luigi Resta, president of rPlus Energies.

The American West is going through a time of immense change, driven by a fast-approaching energy transition and the need to find its place in that narrative. This issue especially hits home in rural communities where there’s an understandable apprehension around what this means for the future: our jobs, families, and what it takes to continue to thrive in our part of the world. But there’s no doubt we’re entering a new frontier in energy with new challenges and opportunities alike. 

Over the last several years, utilities like PacifiCorp and NV Energy have made strategic additions of clean energy sources to their portfolios — with the potential for those sources to comprise a whopping 70 percent of the available power market by 2035. And with a $370 billion investment in resiliency and reliable energy soon available through the Inflation Reduction Act, a surge of new projects to shore up our nation’s energy independence and infrastructure will undoubtedly spring up across the nation — representing a transformative economic opportunity. 

A change? Yes. But it’s frontier-pushing projects like these that defined this hardy half of the country from its beginning and will help define our towns for generations to come. The rural West — with its communities sprinkled across the mountains, deserts and areas in between — is positioned to have an outsized influence on our successful adaptation to this new energy and economic frontier; it will simply need to make smart use of its resources, just as it’s always done.

Naturally, there should be some reasonable caution around new energy projects taking root in our communities and embracing our place in this unfolding narrative will require a commitment of time, a courageous foresight, and a strong faith, much the same approach as our forefathers used. But the benefits — continued energy independence, security, resiliency, reliability — are all hallmarks of our celebrated rural West and all captured in this future. 

So many of our communities have relied on resource production in the past — mining, ranching, logging, oil exploration. Such operations have been the lifeblood of our communities for decades, truly defining our culture, from the reputations of our towns right down to school mascots. Are these renewable energy projects — utilizing the West’s wind, water and solar resources — so different? Through proven energy projects like pumped storage, rural areas with a strong legacy of resource production can support their future generations to thrive just as they did in the past, without cultural or economic sacrifice. 

The American West can simultaneously sustain its proud heritage and blaze its own trail on the new energy frontier — these are not mutually exclusive actions. And for our communities that need it most — to maintain energy independence, to protect their way of life, and to provide reliable and well-paying job opportunities — this is the most prudent path forward and one that the rural West can truly embrace with pride.

Luigi Resta, a leader in renewable energy development, has added more than 375 MW of renewable energy to the grid in the United States — with a focus on opening markets in states with untapped renewable resources. 

Resta founded rPlus Energies to focus on developing new utility-scale and mid-sized renewable energy projects that maximize the most forward-thinking advancements in technology, financing and operations.

Resta has been publicly recognized for his role in pioneering utility-scale solar in Utah — a state with excellent solar potential. He has also been an active voice in the U.S. renewable energy discussion, often sharing his experiences related to transmission, interconnection, and power purchase agreements; federal and state permitting; structured financing; and leveraging the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act to unlock new project opportunities.