Home   Contact Us   Donate!  Solar Community Outreach   Arizona Goes Solar!   Solar PR   

"Go Solar in Arizona" Economic Development Initiative

---

Top 10 Reasons to Vote "Yes" for the
"Go Solar in Arizona" Economic Development Initiative

1. Allow Arizona to install its favorite source of FREE clean solar electricity
2. Allow Arizona families to protect themselves from rising electricity costs
3. Allow Arizona to generate 10,000 to 20,000 new solar & industry support jobs
4. Allow Arizona to setup SREC Trading Exchange to buy/sell/export SRECs
5. Allow Arizona investors to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into SRECs
6. Allow Arizona to create market demand for more than 2 million solar panels
7. Allow Arizona to attract new solar panel manufacturing plants to meet demand
8. Allow Arizona to generate hundreds of millions in new taxable state revenue

---

Help Make Solar Affordable for Arizona Households

Vote YES to recieve a $12,000 solar tax credit!

The main goal of the "Go Solar in Arizona" Economic Development Initiative is to create jobs, make solar affordable for homeowners and help protect Arizona families from rising electricity bills.

The "Go Solar in Arizona" Economic Development Initiative will enable every voter in Arizona to vote "yes" for a personal solar tax credit that will it affordable for Arizona homeowners to begin producing their own free, clean solar electricity, which burns no fuel, produces zero air pollution, wastes zero water, and protects ratepayers from future electricity price rate hikes. It will also create thousands of Arizona jobs.

The "Go Solar in Arizona" Economic Development Initiative will increase Arizona's Personal Solar Tax Credit from 25% to 50% with a maximum cap of $12,000 per rooftop. This will make it affordablde for an average household to be able to pay for a 5.3-kilowatt system that will save them around $1,000 per year on their electricity bill at today's rates.

To fund 100% of solar tax credit program's cost, tax credit recipients will sign over their Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) to the state of Arizona, which will sell them to Arizona electric utility companies to meet their Arizona Renewable Energy Standard requirement by 2025.

The initiative will also create an SREC Trading Exchange that will allow the state of Arizona as well as independent solar power producers to buy/sell/export their SREC credits to recoup their investment in solar power.

Based on the growth achieved by the solar industry in 2009 to 2010, the "Go Solar in Arizona" Economic Development Initiative should create the demand for more than 1,300 new solar installation companies that will create jobs for approximately 10,000 to 20,000 workers as the solar industry grows.

There is no brighter industry for creating thousands of clerical, construction, sales, marketing and finance jobs in Arizona than the solar industry. If you need a job, the please help us collect signatures, vote yes to solar in 2012 and watch the solar industry grow beginning in 2013.

---

Your Donations Help Us Pay for Voter Signature Collection

To get the "Go Solar in Arizona" Economic Development initiative on the Arizona 2012 ballot we need to collect a minimum of 172,800 signatures. To collect these signatures, we have signed a contract with a professional Arizona petition signature firm that charges us $1.50 to help us gather signatures from valid registered voters.

Please help us raise enough money to pay for our signature collection drive. It costs us $1.50 per signature. Donating $15 helps us collect 10 signatures. Donating $30 helps us collect 20 signatures. Donating $1,500 helps us collect 1,000 signatures. The more money we can raise, the more signatures we can collect.

Please help us, help you save money on future electric bills!

Click on the Donate button below to donate.

Donate Now - Secure Online Fundraising

If you don't have a job right now, please call 602-326-0940 to find out how to volunteer to help us collect signatures for the "Go Solar in Arizona" initiative.

"Go Solar in Arizona" Initiative filings with the Arizona Secretary of State:

• Arizona Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) Trading Exchange
• Increase the Arizona Personal Solar State Tax Credit to $12,000

---

Solar Power: Arizona's Favorite Source of FREE Clean Electricity

According to a recent Arizona voter research study, " Key Findings from a Survey of Arizona Voters Regarding Increasing the Use of Renewable Sources for Electricity Production," published in March 2011 by Public Opinion Strategies and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates voter support is extremely high for solar power. Unlike any device that a homeowner will buy for their home, solar is the only thing that will ever produce enough free electricity to pay for itself in a matter of a few years.

Solar is extremely popular and every Arizona homeowners would probably install it if they could simply afford the high out-of-pocket upfront cost to install a solar power array. Solar power has become so popular that every single utility company in Arizona has practically run out of solar rebate money, which is why Arizona needs to increase its solar tax credit to help make it more affordable for homeowners go solar.

If fact, when asked more than 91% of Arizona voters surveyed in a March 2011 voter opinion poll said they would be willing to pay some amount more on their monthly electric bill to support solar energy.

A bipartisan polling team recently completed a statewide survey of Arizona voters in March 2011 to assess voter attitudes about energy in Arizona. Taken together, the results of the Survey of Arizona Voters Regarding Increasing the Use of Renewable Sources for Electricity Production showed a strong voter preference for transitioning away from coal and increasing the use of clean, renewable energy to meet Arizona's future electricity needs.

Voters have more positive impressions of solar, wind and hydroelectric power than of any other energy sources, such as nuclear or coal. Voters say affordability is a very important factor to them, three-in-five (60%) also feel that having more affordable electricity is not worth the pollution caused by coal-burning power plants. In fact, 91% of voters say they would be willing to pay some amount more to increase the use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind in generating electricity.

More than four-in-five (80%) say that it is time to start replacing coal with renewable energy sources. Customers from the state's two largest electric utilities concur. The opinion poll shows that 75% of APS customers and 84% of SRP customers express agreement with the idea of starting to transition from coal to cleaner sources of energy.

When given a choice between investing in renewable energy like solar and wind or investing in pollution control equipment for coal-burning power plants in light of updated air quality safeguards, voters are three times (300%) as likely to prefer an investment in renewable energy and transitioning away from coal. A majority believes that such a transition would create new jobs in Arizona.

The preference for investing more in renewable energy production, rather than in pollution control technology for current power plants, is widespread and broad-based.

This preference for solar and renewable energy is supported by an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters:

• 84% of Democrats, 77% of Independents, and 56% of Republicans
• 84% of Native Americans, 73% of Latino voters and 70% of Caucasian voters
• 73% of suburbanites, 72% of small town voters, 70% of urban voters, and 69% of rural voters
• 75% of Northern Arizona counties, 73% of voters in Maricopa county, 70% in Southern Arizona counties and 63% in Pima county

Arizona voters view a shift to renewable energy and away from coal as a job creator for the state's economy. The view of renewable energy as a job creator is consistent across all demographic, geographic and partisan sub-groups, but is particularly pronounced among Native Americans (69% of whom say it will create jobs), college-educated voters (60%), and Independent women (65%).

Taken as a whole, they survey results make it clear that Arizona voters view renewable energy sources quite positively and say that it is time to start transitioning away from coal and towards renewable energy sources. Voters prefer that electricity providers respond to updated air quality standards by increasing renewable energy production, rather than investing in pollution-control technology.

This preference is so significant that the vast majority indicates a willingness to pay more in order to meet the goal of increasing renewable energy production. Underlying this preference is likely a concern about air quality, which voters most frequently volunteer as the most serious environmental problem facing Arizona - one that four-in-ten say affects their immediate family.

Last, but not least, a majority of Arizonans think this transition will create new jobs for Arizona.

---

APS Research Shows that Solar Will Save $3 Billion over 15 Years

Want to see some positive proof from APS, Arizona's largest utility company, that solar would save utility companies a lot of money that could be passed onto ratepayers?

Every person in Arizona should download and read the following R.W. Beck research report. You will be surprised at how much utility companies have studied solar power. You will also be shocked to see how much money solar would save the utility company when deployed in sufficient numbers.

The R.W. Beck research study was filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission by Arizona's largest utility company, APS, back on January 29, 2009 and shows from a utility company's perspective precisely how and where solar should be installed to save ratepayers $3 billion.

The report is 219 pages. To save time only read the Executive Summary and Section 6 - Developing a Winning Business Case for Solar Deployment. You'll discover that not only does APS believe in solar, but they want to be allowed to enter the solar installation business.

What Does this Graph Show?

The graph above details the cost savings that would be achieved by solar power installations. Solar would save APS more than $3 billion on fuel, purchased power, line losses, fixed O&M, power generation, transmission and distribution savings over the next 15 years.

This graph shows that for every 500,000 megawatt hours of solar energy produced, the utility company will save $50 million. Unlike expensive coal or gas, which can only be burned once and never provides a return on investment, solar panels are guaranteed to produce free electricity for a minimum of 25 years, but most solar panels will produce electricity for 30 to 40 years.

A one-time investment in solar panels produces costs savings that will be compounded on a year-to-year basis over their 25-year lifecycle. (see the graph above)

In the first year, the graph shows that producing 250,000 solar megawatt hours would lead to $25 million in savings. The second year if the same amount of money is invested in solar, it will produce $25 million from the first investment and $25 million more from the second investment for a compounded savings of $50 million. The third year will produce $75 million of savings and so on through the year 2025. The total savings accrued by 2025 amounts to $3 billion.

If solar can provide this much money in solar powered savings, it makes you wonder why utility companies keep raising our electricity rates. Instead, utilities should be offering ratepayers more solar rebates, and reducing everyone's electricity bill.

This is precisely why Arizona needs to implement a $12,000 solar tax credit and require the utility companies to buy the SRECs from the state of Arizona. It will drive the cost of electricity down to affordable rates for everyone and create tens of thousands of jobs for the solar installation industry.

---

Why is Solar so Popular? Because It Saves Homeowners a Lot of Money

Solar panels produce a lot of free electricity, which saves customers thousands of dollars per yearon their electric bills. Even more important is that the fact solar power produces zero pollution, which is great for Arizona's air quality.

Coal power plants are very expensive to operate. Coal is very expensive to mine, transport, crush and burn. An average coal plant burns 10,000 tons of coal at a cost of $1 million per day or $365 million per year. The smoke produced from burning coal contains CO2, SO2, NOX and Mercury, which are very hazardous to all living creatures. Cleaning up coal air pollution is very expensive. The price tag for installing one set of air scrubbers to clean carbon emissions out of polluted air for SRP ratepayers was $405 million dollars.

Solar is also expenisve, but it is much cheaper in the long run because solar uses free solar energy to generate clean green electricity and does not require expensive pollution control equipment.

Unlike coal, solar panels produce enough free electricity to actually pay for their installation. Instead of spending $365 million on coal to burn or $405 million on air scrubbers, why not spend more money to install solar power to create clean solar electricity? If ratepayers can afford to spend $365 million on coal, why not invest the same amount per year on solar? Replacing expensive coal as a fuel source and replacing it with free solar fuel makes a lot of common sense.

Over 25 years at today's price of $365 million per year on coal, voters will spend more than $9.1 billion on coal to power a single electricity generation plant. There are 26 electric generation plants in Arizona.

If voters spent $365 million on solar in one year, the solar panels would generate free clean electricity for next 25 years with out having to pay for fuel. Solar would actually pay for itself and remove the cost of mining, transporting, and burning coal.

How much solar power would $365 million worth of solar tax credits buy? A budget of $365 million would fund a $12,000 tax credit for more than 30,470 households to install a 5.3 kilowatt solar power array. A solar power array saves customers approximately $20 per month per kilowatt installed. A 5.3 kilowatt system would save an average customer $1,272 per year on their electric bill. Multiply that figure by 30,470 households and you will see that solar power would save Arizona ratepayers roughly $39 million in the first year of operation and $975 million over the solar panel's 25-year lifecycle.

A 5.3 kilowatt system produces 1,750 hours of solar electricity, so 5.3 kilowatts x 1,750 hours equals 9,275 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year of free electricity. Over 25 years, a single 5.3 kilowatt solar power array will produce 231,875 kWh of free solar electricity. Imagine how much clean electricity 30,479 solar systems would generate! Replacing coal as a fuel source and replacing it with solar would save Arizona ratepayers billions of dollars in reduced fuel costs.

But can Arizona utiltity companies afford to pay for solar? If the six major utility companies in Arizona divided a solar tax credit budget of $365 million would only break down to $60 million per utility company. Paying $60 per year on solar is a lot more affordable than spending $405 on air scrubbers. Right?

With that said, the cost of burning coal is just one expense of producing electricity. There are many other areas where solar will save money such as line loss that occurs when transmitting electricity over long transimission lines.

All of these cost savings and more are detailed in the R.W. Beck research report mentioned below. The R.W. Beck report shows how and where APS would save $3 billion by moving away from burning coal and spending more money to install solar power arrays. The same would be true for every electric utility company in Arizona on a slightly smaller scale.

Click on the cities below to find a signature collection table near you:

Ahwatukee, Anthem, Apache Junction, Avondale, Bisbee, Buckeye, Bullhead City, Casa Grande, Cave Creek, Chandler, Chino Valley, Clifton, Colorado City, Coolidge, Cornville, Cottonwood, Douglas, El Mirage, Flagstaff, Florence, Fort Huachuca, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Globe, Golden Valley, Goodyear, Green Valley, Higley, Holbrook, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Laveen, Litchfield Park, Littlefield, Marana, Maricopa, Mesa, Nogales, Page, Paradise Valley, Parker, Payson, Peoria, Phoenix, Prescott, Prescott Valley, Queen Creek, Safford, Sahuarita, San Manuel, Scottsdale, Sedona, Showlow, Sierra Vista, St. Johns, Sun City, Sun City West, Surprise, Tempe, Tolleson, Tuba City, Tucson, Vail, Wickenburg, Window Rock, Winslow, Yuma, and other cities and towns through out Arizona.

---