Scottsdale, AZ, October 5, 2009
Nationally, October is Energy Awareness Month by presidential proclamation since 1991. The aim is to promote public understanding of our energy needs and to reduce energy consumption in our everyday lives. The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) announced its 14th annual National Solar Home Tour in support of this important event.
Flagstaff, AZ -- As Hopi and Navajo leaders in the American Southwest evaluate their energy policies, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups remain committed to working with their tribal partners to find clean energy solutions that work for everyone.
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WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords today applauded passage of her Solar Technology Roadmap Act by a key House subcommittee. "This legislation will help take solar research and development in the United States to a new level," the Arizona lawmaker said.
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Starwood Energy Group Global LLC has ended its deal to provide power to Arizona Public Service Co. from a large solar plant it intended to build in western Maricopa County.
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Hello Everyone,
First, we would like to thank you for your assistance and patience as we update the application processes associated with our Residential EarthWise Solar Programs. For the most part, it has been a fairly smooth transition. However, there are a few areas within each program that need to be addressed.
Want some solar energy with your geothermal? In Utah, state officials are fielding various combinations of energy proposals. Together, the 15 projects in the works amount to "a land rush of alternate energy" projects, said John Andrews, the No. 2 official at Utah's trust-lands administration.
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The Middle East is synonymous with oil -- a critical natural resource that has transformed the nations of that region into some of the wealthiest on Earth. My home state of Arizona has no oil to speak of but is blessed with a natural resource that in my opinion is even better: abundant sunshine. Just as oil was a passport to wealth in the 20th century, I believe the sun will be a gateway to prosperity in the 21st.
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Bisbee, AZ — In an effort to make the county friendly to renewable energy, the Cochise County Board of Supervisors approved the addition of regulations for solar energy systems and power plants during Tuesday’s meeting.
Planner Michael Turisk presented the new solar energy code. It includes a provision to open the county to the solar power industry, including prime agricultural lands, the San Pedro Watershed Overlay District and avian flyway concentration areas, such as the Sulphur Springs Valley and Whitewater Draw, as agreed to by Planning and Zoning Commission members in August.
There's about to be a new kid on the block in east Yuma County. The Agua Caliente Solar Project passed its final permit hurdle Tuesday with approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).
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New York-based Prism Solar Technologies Inc., which has its research center in Tucson, Arizona, is planning to begin production of solar materials that redirect and concentrate sunlight to boost efficiency and reduce the use of costly crystalline silicon, which is used in approximately 85 percent of the solar cell market. Prism Solar, which is headquartered in Highland, N.Y., has been able to replace a large percentage of the crystalline silicon with its patented Holographic Planar Concentrator film, as a low-cost solution for the green revolution, while retaining or surpassing the initial cell efficiency.
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There's enough noonday sunlight striking the University of Arizona campus to produce 1.5 gigawatts of electricity and power all of Tucson. Sunny skies are a key reason Tucson has attracted several companies in the solar energy industry. Economic-development officials say the city is taking its place as a solar-business hot spot of the world. To spread that message, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. [TREO] hosted several journalists last week from around the United States, including some who report for media in solar-conscious Germany.
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Four technologies aim to use heat from the sun to make electricity. But which one has the edge?
Nearly a century ago, American engineer Frank Shuman erected five immense, trough-shaped mirrors in Meadi, Egypt. The parabolic reflectors directed sunlight onto a tube suspended above their 200-foot lengths. Water inside the tubes boiled and created steam. The steam powered a 65-horsepower engine, which pumped 6,000 gallons of water per minute from the Nile River to nearby cotton fields. It was the world’s first concentrated solar power (CSP) plant.
Tucson-based Global Solar Energy, Inc. has set a benchmark of 15.45 percent efficiency for the thin-film photovoltaic material it produces at plants in Tucson and Germany, according to the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an Executive Order directing the California Air Resources Board to adopt regulations increasing the stateGovernor Schwarzenegger advances California’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard to 33 per cent by 2020.
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Tucson Electric Power Co. is seeking bids to locate a "utility scale" solar plant in the Tucson area, along with some smaller installations on underused land, possibly on reclaimed landfills. In a request for proposals released last week, the utility seeks to buy 50,000 to 100,000 megawatt-hours of energy per year from solar installations built and owned by third parties.
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Arizona State University West is boosting its green profile over the next several months with a major retrofit of campus light fixtures - indoors and out - to high-efficiency models. ASU campuses have a reputation to uphold after the "Princeton Review" named ASU's Tempe campus as a "standout" on its list of the greenest universities in the country.
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Arizona received $9.6 million Monday that will be funneled to small cities and towns across the state to further their goals for energy efficiency. The disbursement, part of $354 million pool released by the U.S. Department of Energy, is for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants. Much of those funds already have been distributed to large cities and counties in the state.
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China has become second only to the US in its national power-generating capacity and is now the world’s largest CO2 emitter, according to a report from Harvard and Tsinghua Universities. The report also demonstrates the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China.
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