Dec 16 2010
The city of Tucson Water Department, in Tucson, Arizona, and SunPower, declared that by availing the support from the renewable energy program of Trico Electric SunWatts, SunPower will formulate and build a 1 MW ground mounted solar power generation system, over land that was previously utilized for agriculture.
The land is situated in the underground water storage and recovery installation of Tucson Water Department, located around 20 miles west of downtown Tucson.
The 10-acre site chosen for the solar power installation will have SunPower solar Tracker systems manufactured by SunPower. The Tracker system will follow the movements of the sun all through the day and capture at least 25% more energy than the fixed type of systems and requires less land for installation. The proposed solar power system, which is anticipated to get completed by March 2011, will almost double the current solar power capability of the city.
Jim Pape, president of residential and commercial business group in SunPower, said that the proposed system will dependably generate clean power for a number of years. He added that Tucson shows the way to add solar projects to overcome the growing energy demand of the state and to enable the state to achieve its renewable energy goals.