250-MW Solar Power Plant For Arizona?

A group of Southwestern utilities, including those from APS, SRP & Tucson Electric Power, are studying the feasibility of a 250-MW solar power plant in either Az or southern Nevada. At 250-MW's it would be 1 of the largest solar power plants in the region.

The group's drawing up a request for proposals to present to solar power plant developers, who would build & operate the plant & sell the power to the utilities under long-term power-purchase agreements.

The Az Dept of Commerce recently released the State's Solar Roadmap Study which projects up to 1,000 megawatts of solar electricity could be implemented in Az by 2020 creating more than 3,000 new jobs in the process & reducing emissions by 400,000 tons per year. One of the roadmap initiatives calls for a coalition of western utilities to develop large-scale central solar projects in Az with a focus on a single significant scale project of 250 MW in size.