Arizona Solar Center - Your Guide to Solar and Other Renewable Energy Sources in Arizona

Arizona Public Service Company (APS) operates the Solar Test And Research (STAR) facility to provide solar resource monitoring, small scale performance testing of new products, and to act as a staging area to ready and test equipment being installed for customer service. The STAR facility, which is located in the buffer area at the Ocotillo Power Plant in Tempe, is currently the focal point of APS' solar test and evaluation program.

The mission of the STAR facility is to:

• Support the customer services and utility applications that use renewable energy equipment
• Help determine which products and services have the best potential for economic use by APS and its customers in the next five years
• Help the Company, its suppliers and other utilities work together to develop renewable energy options that can be cost effective
  

Solar technologies currently under evaluation at STAR include crystalline, thin film and high concentration photovoltaics, remote (off-grid) residential solar units, grid-tied rooftop PV systems, grid-tied utility PV systems and a dish/Stirling solar thermal electric generation system. For information about tours of the facility, see the Solar Tours page. Visit the APS web site for more information on their solar programs.