Feb 5 2011
GWS Technologies, a company that develops solar and wind farms through partnership ventures in association with investors and landowners, declared that it has commenced the designing and development process for its planned commercial level solar and wind farm.
The proposed farm will be located over a 1500 acre area on the Colorado Plateau located northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. The wind resource map published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Wind Program of the Department of Energy indicates that the state of Arizona has enough wind sources to encourage utility level wind energy production.
The phase 1 of the proposed project will comprise solar panels and wind turbines to enable mixed production of solar and wind energy. The proposed farm will generate electric power all through the day and in nearly all types of weather to reduce vagaries in power production. GWS Technologies has plans to develop the project in different phases with power production ranging from 10 to 20 MW.
The state of Arizona has made it mandatory for the utility companies to produce 15% of the total distributed power from clean energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines by the year 2025. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides 30% grant through its Treasury Grant Program to the owners of commercial level solar property instead availing the Investment Tax Credit for solar installation. The owners of the project will be entitled to avail the grant only if the projects start their construction before December 31st 2011 and complete it before December 31st 2016.