Tucson declared October to be Solar Energy Month, and yesterday Arizona was recognized by the Washington D.C. Solar Foundation for leading the nation in jobs produced through solar energy. Ranked third behind California and Colorado, Arizona solar power provided nearly 5,000 jobs.
Tucson is one of 25 cities chosen in 2007 to lead the nation with solar incentives. Tucson is home to several solar panel manufacturing firms.
Tucson Electric Company (TEP) and Salt River Project were also recognized yesterday by the Washington based Solar Electric Power Association for their innovations in renewables. Arizona State also received an award for its commitment to solar power.
The government is subsidizing the heck out of solar and wind right now. They've subsidized the oil and gas industry for nearly one hundred years, so, this is nothing new.
Wind and solar are forever, petroleum products are finite. These are facts, and whether you believe in global warming or not, and whether you think for some reason it is okay to subsidize the gas and oil industry and not 'green' energy, because you have philosophical issue with 'green' anything is largely beside the point. Either America looks to these technologies now, or it looks to them after the other fuels have either played out or become inaccesible due to conflicts with ther nations.
America also needs to embrace the worldwide movement away from non-renewables if they wish to be leaders in the industry. Innovation only comes from fearlessly looking to the future, not clinging desperately to the past.
Tucson is making an effort to go solar, and every day more and more solar panels spring up all over town. The cost today of a solar water heater is almost the same as a standard water heater, it is almost stupid to replace a dead water heater with a standard water heater when TEP or Trico electric (depending on where you live), the state and the federal government will give you breaks and rebates to install a solar one.
Wind Turbines are not as popular in Tucson, because the winds here are not worth the effort, but their history here, as elsewhere goes back more than 100 years. All those windmills dotting the landscape around town aren't decorative, they're pulling water out of the grond to fill livestock tanks and water storage tanks for homes.
Along the eastern edges of Tucson, in the Empires and south into Sonoita and Elgin the winds are much more steady, and perhaps with time instead of a steady decline in functioning windmills in southern Arizona, there will be a resurgance. One of the leaders in US wind turbines is Southwestern Wind Power located up in Flagstaff. They announced an agreement in June of this year with Home Depot to begin selling their turbines through Home Depot stores in windy locations.
Regardless of the source used, energy that isn't harvested from the ground will begin to decline over the next several hundred years, whether due to their disappearance, or better more economical ways to harvest renewables, and Tucson, and Arizona should be leading the way.
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