By John Farrell | Clean Technia
In February, I visited the folks at Sustainable Tucson in Arizona who are puzzling over their monopoly electricity provider’s attitude toward solar energy. Tucson Electric Power acquires just 4% of its electricity from renewable resources (and over 70% from coal), despite being at the heart of the best sunshine in the country. The red arrow shows Tucson on this map of the nation’s solar resource:
Despite a world-class solar resource, the Tucson utility intends to install far more power plants using natural gas than solar over the next 15 years. Might it be due to their inflated cost of solar?
The utility’s 2014 resource plan suggests that it hasn’t grasped (or refuses to seize) the opportunity. Although it forecasts growth in renewable energy by 600 megawatts (MW) in the next 15 years, it’s only half the capacity increase it intends for natural gas (1200 MW).
It all comes down to numbers.
Related: Harry Reid: Raise the cap to allow more rooftop solar
