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"Go Solar in Arizona" Solar Whitepaper Library

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Solar Could Save Ratepayers $3 Billion

The R.W. Beck report was sponsored by APS, Arizona's largest electric utility company, and shows exactly how much money ratepayers could be saved with high penetration levels of solar power installations.

• R.W. Beck Solar Impact Study - Solar Can Save $3 Billion
• RW Beck Solar Savings by Year

Solar panels require no fuel, produce no air pollution and are virtually maintenance free after installation.

Carbon-based power generation stations burns billions of dollars worth of coal, produce 66.7 million tons of air pollution per year, and require a massive amount of maintenance. The R.W. Beck report listed below details from a utility company's perspective exactly where solar makes sense and how much it will save the utility companny on each portion of its generation, transmission and distribution power lines.

On page XXIV of the executive summary there is graph that show how much utilities/ratepayers will save over the next 15 years with high penetration levels of solar. According to the report, installing 1,000,000 Megawatt-hours (MWh) of solar electric production would save APS $100,000,000.

The graph shows that 375,000,000 MWh would be needed in 2025. Divide 375,000,000 over 15 years and it would require a minimum of 250,000 MWh to be installed each year.

If 250,000 MWh of solar was installed in 2011, it would only save $25 million the first year, but the savings continue at no extra cost for the next 25 years. If APS adds an additional 250,000 MWh each year, the savings rise by 50% in 2012, 67% in 2013, 75% in 2014 and 80% in 2015.

If you add the savings up for the first 5 years it adds up to a savings of $375 million. Add all 15 years together and it equals more than $3 billion worth of savings on fuel, power purchases, grid capital expenditures and transmission/distribution power losses.

Solar energy is free and would provide a great way to help reduce ratepayers electric bills and freeze rising energy costs.

Arizona Renewable Energy Standard

These presentations detail the percentages of renewable energy that every regulated utility in Arizona has to meet by 2025.

• Arizona Corporation Commission REST Plan 2009
• Arizona Corporation Commission REST Plan 2007

Arizona Solar Cities

These presentations detail the benefits of creating solar cities throughout Arizona.

• Case Study on How Bisbee Became a Solar City
• Dept. of Energy Guidelines and Solar City Winners

Arizona Solar Economic Development

Solar has proven to be the only bright spot in Arizona economic development portfolio. A 10% penetration level of residential solar power arrays would generate the need for 2,798 solar installation companies that would create 27,980 jobs. At an average salary of $35,000, these jobs would generate $979,301,417 of new salaries that would be spent on retail goods and services, which generate tax revenue.

If city governments charged a $300 solar installation permit fee, it would generate $50,364,073 of revenue that could be put back into state budgets.

With a cap of 5-kilowatts per household, a 10% penetration level would generate the sales of 4,197,006 200-watt solar panels. If panels were selling for $2 per watt, it would generate $1,678,802,429 of solar panel revenue, which would attract many solar manufacturing plants.

If solar installation costs were calculated at $4 per installed watt, 167,880 installations would generate $3,357,604,857 of solar installation revenue.

The amount of pollution these solar installations would remove is too incredible to imagine. Over a 25-year time span, a 10% penetration of solar would prevent 12,591,018,214 short tons of coal from being burnt. It would eliminate 25,182,036,429 tons of CO2 (greenhouse gas), 83,940,121 tons of NOx (smog), and 70,090,001 tons of S02 (acid rain).

• Arizona Solar Jobs, Salaries, Permit Fee, Installed Revenue
• Arizona Solar Electric Roadmap Research Report
• Developing Solar Programs State by State
• Economic Drivers for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
• Economic Impact of Solar Federal Tax Credit
• Economic Benefits of Photovoltaic Power
• Solar Energy Potential for Economic Growth in Arizona
• Obama Whitehouse Report on Green Collar Jobs

Arizona Coal Power Plant Pollution

A lot of people talk about global warming and air pollution, but not many people realize how bad burning coal actually is. Most say its the cheapest way to produce electricity, but it wouldn't be if the federal government didn't provide the coal and gas industry with more than $1 trillion worth of subsidies, tax breaks and other types of carbon-based incentives.

• Air Pollution Report for Arizona Power Geneeration Stations
• SRP Coal Usage Report
• Dirtiest Power Plants in Arizona
• Maricopa County Air Monitoring Network Review
• Phasing Out Federal Subsidies for Coal
• Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants
• Clearing California's Coal Shadow from the American West
• Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources: 2002-2008
• Power Plants: Characteristics and Costs

Arizona Utility-Scale Concentrating Solar Plants

Utility-scale Concentrating Solar Plants make a lot of headlines generate a lot of news media headlines, but very few ever get built. They are very expensive and hard to finance, but the thing that kills most of the deal is the fact that they are no big transimmission power lines present needed to carry solar electricity back to the towns where it is needed. Large solar PV farms closer to town are much more realistic.

• Attracting Large Scale Solar to Arizona
• Concentrating Solar Power Plants in Arizona
• Solar Millenium Forecast for Concentrated Solar Power

Arizona Nuclear Power Plant Dangers

Nuclear power plants are said to be clean energy because they do not produce any carbon emissions, but in reality the amount of nuclear waste that is dangerous for up to 10,000 years and the fact that they use 40 billion gallons of water per year are negative side effects. And in the case of a nuclear accident homeowners are not protected by insurance. The costs to build a nuclear power plant are astronomical.

• The Dangers of Nuclear Power Plants
• Solar and Nuclear Costs - The Historic Crossover

Arizona Solar Energy Improvement Districts

Solar energy improvement districts have not really caught on yet, but they are a great way for whole communities to set up bonds in order to finance lots of solar power installations.

• Arizona Solar Energy Improvement Districts

Arizona Solar Community Energy Storage Devices

Solar's only drawback is that it only produces electricity during daylight hours. The first person that comes up with a very cost-effective and safe way to store energy will become an overnight billionaire. There batteries, capacitors, and flyways, but more of they are too expensive and too dangerous to be placed in households.

• Energy Storage Devices for Solar Communities

Arizona Solar Manufacturing Plants

The cost to be a megawatt solar manufacturing plant is only about $10 million and incentives will pay for up to 80% of the costs. Once we create sufficient solar panel demand by achieving a 10% solar penetration level, every solar manufacturer will open up a plant in Arizona to meet our growing demand.

• Building a Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant in Arizona

Arizona Solar Power Transmission Lines

Once we install sufficient solar in the city, most developers will move toward utility scale solar PV farms and concentrated solar plants that will be constructed in the desert. But before large desert tracts can be developed, the utility company needs to upgrade or build new transmission lines to carry solar electricity back to the city. And once Arizona is generating surplus solar energy we need build high voltage lines to other states so Arizona will be able to export its solar energy to other states.

• Arizonas Need for High Voltage Solar Electric Transmission Lines

Arizona Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs)

Arizona needs to create a trading system for SREC like the ones they have in many northeastern states. For customers that decide not to accept utility incentives, they can retain their SRECs and sell them for good money.

• Who Owns Renewable Energy Credits?
• Introduction to SREC Trading Systems
• Case Study on New Jersey SREC Trading System, Page 23