Arizona Solar Center Blog

Frederick Buechner wrote that there is a time for looking back over the past "and trying to figure out where we have come from and where we are going to."

Last year I wrote a blog about “Waves of Disruption” [Feb 22, 2014] sweeping through the energy sector.

The debate over climate change is largely settled, and most Americans understand that one of the best weapons to reduce climate altering emissions is for individuals to employ passive solar strategies and adopt renewable energy technologies.

This morning while thinking of all the solar pioneers and their contributions to an alternative future, I was inspired by a speech my son, Jimmy, delivered last week at the state capitol as part of the protest against budget cuts to education.

For the past decade SRP’s solar policies were designed to help increase the demand for solar and drive down costs until the solar industry could stand on its own.

Seems like we have been here before--the rooftop solar debate in Arizona is being branded as a debate about fairness.

Salt River Project management has proposed dramatic changes to its residential electricity rates that carry significant impacts for its more than 12,000 rooftop solar customers.

The biggest clean energy story in 2014 may well be our Story of the Year again come next December: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan.

Some of the biggest issues facing society in the new year will involve finding solutions to our energy and climate problems, and how the growing tension over power production plays out. As the calendar turns to 2015, the Arizona Solar Center takes a look back at some of the major solar stories that made headlines in 2014.

Earthwise, Solar Choice and Solar Partners are just some of the marketing catchphrases and program names that have characterized utility solar programs in Arizona since 1997.

The politics of energy and climate is heating up – both figuratively and literally.

Four years ago, I wrote an article for a national magazine on what to make of the 2010 mid-term elections and its implications for energy policy.

Earlier this week the New York Times published an article about how environmental issues have become a major force in political advertising during this election cycle.

In 2008, Americans across the country voted for change.  That change included transforming our century-old dependence on fossil fuels.  Central to this makeover was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Humanity continues to power forward on the road to an alternative future.  Forbes magazine predicts that by 2030, approximately $90 trillion will be invested worldwide in infrastructure for cities, land use and energy -- with an emphasis on a shift to a low-carbon economy.

Earlier this summer the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its proposed rules for Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. This is the rule that deals with reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants by 2030. The proposed rule was shaped by public input and builds upon existing priorities, activities, and efforts in states throughout the country.

George P. Shultz served as U.S. Secretary of State, Treasury and Labor under two GOP Presidents. Today, Shultz is co-chair of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution task force on energy policy.

1931

The Great Depression witnessed the highest unemployment rate this country has ever known. A quarter of the American workforce was jobless at its height in 1932. The next year, the newly-elected President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed into law legislation that put the country on the road to recovery.

It’s move-in day at the ASU dorms in downtown Phoenix.

Solar energy once was considered a feel-good story.  We celebrated every announcement as a victory.  The promise of free non-polluting power was the hook-line.