A consortium of business interests, including Foster City, California-based design/build solar firm SolarCity, Arizona utility Tucson Electric Power (TEP), and real estate developer Actus Land Lease, are working together to create Arizona’s largest solar-powered community.
Called Soaring Heights, the development, near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, will be the largest solar community in the continental United States, comprising solar systems which are expected to produce more than 10 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, or enough to power about 833 average-sized homes.
The solar install will comprise two parts: a 45,000 panel, ground-mounted system, owned by National Bank of Arizona, and an additional 36,000 panels on the roofs of homes, financed through SolarCity, which will design and install the systems with interconnects to TEP.
SolarCity began installing the rooftop panels in October. The sites were selected for their solar exposure and their overall suitability for solar electric generation. Most are new homes built to meet TEP’s rigorous standards for energy efficiency, a mandate under TEP’s Guarantee Home Program. Some are existing homes.
The rooftop panels will be supplied with SolarCity’s proprietary SolarGuard monitoring
systems, which will measure not only the panels’ electricity production but their efficiency as compared to the ground-mounted panels. These monitors will also keep SolarCity (and TEP) apprised how the arrays might interact with future “smart grid” installations.
The systems, once installed next year, are expected to offset about 75 percent of the Soaring Heights development’s electrical needs in 2010, and eventually to replace all its electricity requirements. The systems will also increase TEP’s solar capacity by more than 15 percent, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide generated by fossil-fuel-burning power plants by 570 million pounds over their lifetime.
This is reportedly equivalent to taking 50,000 cars off the road for a year, or planting more than 300,000 trees – a tricky proposition in desert-dry Arizona. The installations will help TEP meet renewable energy mandates established by Arizona’s utility regulator, the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Soaring Heights will also be one of the first solar-powered communities on a military base. Actus is also the developer for Army Hawaii Family Housing complex, which will ultimately become the largest solar-powered community in the U.S. (outside the continent). Comprised of solar panels installed at 7,900 homes at various Army sites on the islands, the systems, totaling 7 megawatts, are expected to provide between 15 and 45 percent of resident’s needs.