Arizona, The Nation's Best Solar Resource

The National Renewable Energy Lab study, say's Arizona has,
. . . the third best combination of land area and
. . . resource potential in the U.S. for utility-scale solar power plant development.

In 2011, Arizona had 9 utility-scale projects with
. . . power purchase agreements (PPAs), 8 of them photovoltaic projects.

Bahr said her Sierra Club chapter supported
. . . Abengoa’s 250-megawatt concentrating solar project.
. . . “It is located on former agricultural land,” she said.
. . . “We thought it was important to support a good, well-located project.”

Concerns with other proposals, like
. . . NextEra Energy’s 300-megawatt Sonoran Solar Energy Project, Bahr said,
. . . were addressed satisfactorily in the
. . . National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) permitting process.
. . . “It was originally solar thermal.
The conservation community had a lot of concerns about water use
. . . because it was located on virgin desert and
. . . it was going to be using ground water.”

Source: greentechmedia