The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) in 2006 raised Arizona’s renewable energy standard to 15 percent by 2025. Of that amount, the state regulator stipulates that 30 percent — or about 2,000 megawatts — must come from so-called distributed energy technologies, like solar energy installations. In short, Arizona utilities are on the hook to develop a good chunk of solar power in the coming years.
Tucson Electric Power (TEP) is one such utility with renewable energy obligations. On April 1, it received the ACC’s support for a proposal to boost the amount of solar energy in its power mix. All told, TEP’s plan will add more than 33 megawatts (mWs) of solar generating capacity through power purchasing agreements (PPAs) and new company-owned solar installations.
One of the PPAs will see TEP purchase electricity from a 25-mW solar installation located northwest of Tucson. The solar farm — to be owned and operated by Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, a solar power project developer — will feature a ground-mounted, single-axis tracking system, enabling the PV panels to follow the sun.
TEP’s second PPA contract will be with Bell Independent Power Corp., a New York-based project developer specializing in concentrated solar power (CSP). Bell will own and operate a 5-mW CSP facility at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park. The facility will use pressurized vapor to drive a turbine by using parabolic troughs and a heat-transfer and storage system.
As for the company-owned solar installations, the Arizona utility plans to add 3.4-mWs worth of photovoltaic (PV) systems at various sites in the near future.
As relayed by LCG Consulting, ACC Chairwoman Kris Mayes views TEP’s proposed solar installations as a step in the right direction: “The development of these local renewable resources is exactly what the Arizona Corporation Commission hoped to encourage through the Renewable Energy Standard,” she said.
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