Mesa, AZ – Emc2 Group Architects Planners, PC (Emc2) is working closely with the Deer Valley School District #97 (DVUSD) to modernize the existing Deer Valley High School campus in Glendale, Arizona.  The District included several key categories for modernization, including Circulation, Security, WayFinding and Energy Conservation. The District installed solar panels to generate electricity as part of the Energy Conservation category to provide an efficient alternative to excess utility usage.  By installing solar panels on the roof of most existing building, DVUSD will generate one megawatt of electricity, which will accomplish estimated annual electrical expenditure savings of $145,000 (@$0.10/kWh). The system also includes telemetry for remote tracking and logging output.

SOLON Corporation, based in Tucson, Arizona, was selected to provide the design of solar panels and related equipment. The solar panel project utilizes approximately 4,128 solar panels, or approximately 75,000 SF assembled in solar panel racks with each rack containing a cluster of 12 solar panels each.

For more information about this project, please contact Rahib Sarela, AIA, LEED-AP, Emc2 Group Architects Planners, PC at 480.830.3838.

Az4Solar.org, an association dedicated to supporting economic development of Arizona’s solar energy industry, announced the Arizona Solar Manufacturing Symposium to be held Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix.  Keynote speakers include nearly 30 organizations speaking at the Symposium, including First Solar, Suntech Power Holdings, Ltd., General Plasma, SOLON Corporation, Global Solar, Stirling Energy, BrightSource, Arizona State University, Schott Solar and TUV Rheinland.

The Arizona Solar Manufacturing Symposium is a full-day, single-track event that will include eight sessions featuring speakers from leading organizations either based in or doing business in Arizona.  Each session is designed to present attendees with actionable information and key takeaways.

The symposium will run from 8:30 am through 5:30 pm and will be followed by an extended networking reception, thus providing attendees with exceptional opportunities to learn from and interact with an impressive contingent of industry leaders and policy makers. http://www.az4solar.org/symposium.html

The following is a guest blog from Kathleen O’Brien Thompson, president and owner of professional PUNCH, a marketing and business development consulting firm.  Kathleen is also a contributing editor and writer for both Commercial Executive Magazine and Residential Executive Magazine.  Follow her on Twitter @profesionapunch.

If you think the stimulus money is all gone…think again.  The amount already doled out pales in comparison to the $11 billion now available, and desire for that money has hit a fevered ‘pitch.’

The Solar Energy Industries Association spent $540,000 on lobbying in the second quarter of this year, (more than it spent on lobbyists in all of 2007) in order to beat out lobbyists from the coal and wind energy industries, hoping to get the biggest piece of that pie.

The solar industry’s pitch is that it can create more jobs and spread them more evenly across the entire country compared with the traditional energy sector, including coal.

“You get the best bang for your buck by investing in residential solar,” said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, as reported by Chris Kahn of the ASSOCIATED PRESS.  ”This is about taking the tradesmen who have been let go from the housing industry, and putting them back to work — the electricians, the plumbers, the roofers.”

That’s great.  Yet for those of us who live in ARIZONA where the sun is a daily companion, the most frustrating aspect about all this is how solar companies in other states have moved quickly to take advantage of the tax credits passed last year in an effort to capitalize on all this money.  Panels are popping up in New Jersey and other states far from the Sun Belt.

How does this affect Arizona?

On July 10^th, Governor Brewer signed SB 1403 into law and then on July 13^th signed bills HB 2332 & 2336 to push demand for solar and renewable energy.  Boosted by this demand for solar power, jobs in Arizona’s green industries grew faster than overall state employment over a recent 10-year period, (according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts) and the increased attention on solar projects have created a demand for desert land.  Now, public utilities and speculators vie for vast tracts of public and private land on which to build massive solar-power plants.

What are your thoughts?