Arizona voters rejected Proposition 127 in November, striking down a law that would have required electric companies to generate 50 percent of their electricity using renewable sources by 2020 instead of the 12 percent currently mandated. But energy providers are investing in the technology to increase renewable energy sources despite the lack of policy or incentives to do so.
A city council subcommittee approved a 15-year contract on Dec. 5 to purchase a portion of the city’s power from the Salt River Project’s newly built solar farm, reflecting a shift toward solar power nationally.
Per the contract, the city will be purchasing 10 percent of its power from SRP with the option to purchase up to an additional five percent of leftover energy from other customers.
Mark Hartman, Phoenix’s chief sustainability officer, said the move is financially motivated.
“Across the U.S., cities are choosing it because solar and wind are cheaper,” Hartman said.
The city will pay SRP 2.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, and is being offered similar contracts by other companies.
Solar cell technology was first invented in the 1950s, but it hasn’t advanced to the point where it could become humankind’s primary source of power largely due to the cost of manufacturing it. But, Hartman said companies like SRP are continually developing creative ways to provide their customers with deals.
Despite being expensive to produce and install, solar panels require relatively little maintenance, create no emissions and have the potential to replace fossil fuels.
“Incentives are important to making business decisions,” Owen Hildreth, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines said via email. “Colorado has excellent support for commercial and household solar where you get paid if you feed into the grid. For that reason, my wife and I were able to put solar panels on our house in Colorado. That is a $24k investment that we know will pay for itself and supports the local construction community.”
Hildreth taught at Arizona State University and received a SunShot award from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2017 to fund research of reducing the manufacturing cost of solar panels by decreasing the amount of silver used in production.
“As for policy, Colorado, Denver and the local electrical company (Excel Energy) put in a lot of work to make sure that the permitting process for installing solar panels is painless, fast, and straight-forward but still thorough,” Hildreth said. “That makes it easy for companies and individuals to invest in this technology.”
The campaign against Prop. 127 focused on the cost of undertaking solar power development. Voters who voted no believed they’d be paying more for electricity if the proposition was passed. But experts in states like California and Colorado, where similar mandates have been made, suggested otherwise.
“Excel Energy is a good example,” Hildreth said. “Due to their investments in renewables they have actually been able to cut electricity rates by 8 percent this year while still making a profit. Everyone wins.”
Arizona is ranked among the top states for solar energy. The Solar Energy Industries Association currently ranks the state third in the country with 536,286 homes receiving power from photovoltaic technology and with 8,381 jobs available in the industry. And Phoenix is consistently ranked in the top five cities that use solar energy by industry news outlets. The city has solar panels on various buildings to provide even a fraction of the energy they consume, including a 5.4 megawatt system that provides power to Sky Harbor International Airport.
However, Arizona’s solar industry is nowhere near the size of California’s, the top-ranking state, which employs over 80 thousand people and powers nearly 6 million homes. Some experts point to this disparity and California’s aggressive pursuit to develop renewable energy as the reason the state can commit to sourcing half its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and states like Arizona can’t.
Hartman said the push for solar won’t necessarily be fueled solely by those invested in sustainability.
“I could see us (Phoenix) getting 50 percent of our energy from solar by 2025 just based on the market,” he said. “As long as utilities keep offering us good prices we’ll pick solar every time.”
Contact the reporter at jicazare@asu.edu.
