The University of Arizona has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Tucson Electric Power that will provide 100% of the school’s electricity from wind and solar resources in about a year from now.
The Navajo Generating Station, a coal-burning power plant, has closed its doors for good. It was run for 45 years in Arizona and was the largest coal plant in the West. Its closure will most likely affect the entire region. USA Today reports that the mine that supplied the plant with coal has also closed — it closed back in August.
Electric utilities are keen on electric vehicles these days — they see them as a future revenue source. Utilities from California to Florida to Michigan are sponsoring the installation of public charging stations, and some are offering rebates to customers for installing home chargers. To date, at least 50 utilities in 25 states have launched or proposed programs to encourage the buildout of charging infrastructure.
For those of us living in the Southwest US, the seasonal monsoon thunderstorms aren’t a distant and hypothetical issue. If you live here or visit us in the late summer, they’re rather hard to miss! According to a group of Arizona scientists, it’s not just our imagination. They really are getting more extreme.
The Washington Post reports that Tempe, Arizona’s police department is still investigating last year’s fatal accident in which an Uber autonomous test vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian pushing a bike. The investigation comes at the request of Maricopa County’s prosecutors, who want to know more about whether the accident was avoidable.
Four years have passed since ILSR’s initial report on utility-owned rooftop solar, and this 2019 update shows small growth but some potentially large repercussions. This update rehashes the costs and benefits, updates the progress of the four initial programs, highlights a few new programs, and discusses the wider implications.
The Center for Biological Diversity took legal action in Arizona federal court this week to challenge the Salt River Project, an Arizona utility, in its ongoing rate discrimination against residential solar customers who had their rates bumped up 60% in 2015.
Steve Sasman recently went on an epic 48 state road trip, visiting 107 Tesla stores, meeting over 500 Tesla employees, and finding some helpful Tesla road trip hacks. Here, Steve reflects on the road trip capabilities of a Tesla after breaking the 200,000-mile mark.
The federal government continues to miss legal deadlines for energy efficiency standards for appliances, equipment, and electronics with 17 standards overdue for review and more on the horizon. That’s bad news for anyone who likes saving energy, lower utility bills, and a cleaner planet.
A common challenge that mining companies face, with legacy sites is what to do with the disturbed land once the resource has been exhausted or extraction is no longer profitable.
