This is only a drill. Repeat . . . Forty-eight emergency sirens located within 10 miles of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating station are expected to sound off today as part of an annual federal requirement. They’ll perform a practice blast at noon and at 12:30 p.m., authorities say. Don’t…
Joseph Hui , an Arizona State University engineering researcher, is more educated than we are about energy issues, as he reminded us in a recent email exchange. But we can’t help but stick to our “uneducated” opinions when it comes to some of his claims. Like his prediction that in…
Back in July, Arizona Public Service denied funding an ad campaign that attacked a coalition of rooftop-solar installers battling the utility for ratepayers’ money. But now the company’s confessing that it is, in fact, funding the campaign. Jim McDonald, APS spokesman, tells us he “had no intention of telling a…
Solana, the giant concentrated-solar plant near Gila Bend, began commercial operations on Monday that will deliver power to Arizona residents for the next 30 years. You’ve certainly seen the rows and rows of mirrors in the last year or so if you’ve driven the Gila Bend route on the way…
Staff members at the Arizona Corporation Commission have recommended against paying rooftop solar customers less for their electricity. In a filing last night, staff members acknowledged the position by Arizona Public Service that adding more rooftop-solar customers to the grid eventually raises electric bills for the non-solar customers. But the…
Peoria resident Bryan Teague has been sentenced to a week in federal prison and two years’ supervised probation for starting the August 2012 Mistake Peak Fire in the Tonto National Forest. Still uncertain is whether he’ll have to pay nearly half a million dollars in firefighting costs…
Bryan Teague, who started last year’s Mistake Peak Fire by kicking a propane tank into a campfire, should spend 30 days in prison and pay $487,000 in restitution, federal officials say. The 56-year-old Peoria resident was convicted in May after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts for causing the 5,220-acre…
A news release published for a pro-solar-energy Republican group features a fake, pro-Obama logo for the group that was created by its critics. Tuesday’s post about the news release on Rose Law Group’s website would appear to erase any doubt that TUSK, fronted by Jason Rose and Barry Goldwater Jr.,…
Guess who’s coming to the Arizona solar-energy debate? That’s right, it’s none other than President Barack Obama, through his non-profit advocacy group Organizing For Action. The OFA recently sent out an email blast and created a web page that encourages people to send a message to the Arizona Corporation Commission…
Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, apologized to the Arizona Corporation Commission this week after one of his employees spread misinformation to customers. The flap began about 11 p.m. on July 31, records show, when SolarCity sales consultant Doyle Dreesen sent a breathless email to an unknown number of customers that…
If you’ve driven past the Phoenix VA hospital at Indian School Road and Seventh Street in the past couple of years, you couldn’t help but notice its large solar-panel project. Yet most of the panels have been sitting idle, New Times has learned, collecting sunlight but not transmitting electricity anywhere…
APS isn’t funding a campaign by a Virginia conservative group that attacks solar-power installers, a utility spokesman says. But that doesn’t mean the company doesn’t appreciate the hard-hitting ad that has generated 145,000 views on YouTube. “We’re happy they support our point of view,” says Jim McDonald of APS about…
Arizona, New Mexico, and California are among the worst places in the country to subsidize solar and wind projects if better air quality is the goal, a new study says.The best bang for the buck in terms of improving public health, according to Carnegie Mellon University researchers, could be had…
Governor Jan Brewer and other state officials attended a demonstration today of a new, mobile solar-power generator that unfolds like the lotus flower it’s named after. Monarch Power CEO, Joseph Hui, introduced the Lotus Mobile as a product that could power a refrigerator or other appliances in any location (when…
We had a temporary, though intense, urge to flee the state after reading Michael Clancy’s climate-change apocalypse story in today’s Arizona Republic. Clancy’s story describes how climate change could turn Arizona from the paradise it is today into a scorched, polluted, economically challenged wasteland that swelters in winter as well…
See also: Matinee Energy Official Pushed Gold-Mine Scheme in 1980s, Now Behind $700 Million Solar Deal With Hyundai Heavy See also: Matinee Energy? Power Co-Op Isn’t Buying It; Proposed Benson Solar Farm Reportedly too Big for Nearby Lines See also: Solar Firm Matinee Energy is Full of Hot Air Tong…
Matinee Energy, the Tucson mystery company with ties to two controversial brothers, has plans to build a large-scale, 120-megawatt solar-power plant in Benson.But even if the firm manages to complete the project, which claims a construction budget “up to the maximum of $444 million,” it isn’t clear who would purchase…
First Solar, the Tempe-based solar-panel manufacturing company, is being targeted by a class-action lawsuit alleging its principals hid negative facts to mislead investors.The federal complaint (see below) comes about a week after the company revealed that it was being investigated by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission for alleged problems with…
Matinee Energy, a company with plans to build several large solar-power plants in Arizona, says a founder who once ran a bogus gold-mining scheme no longer has a role in the firm. Yet many questions remain about the mystery company, which reportedly has contracts with Hyundai Heavy and KEPCO KDN,…
The Phoenix Suns seemed in control of the Golden State Warriors for about the first 34 minutes of last night’s game in San Francisco. The problem was, the pro game is 48 minutes long, and the Suns couldn’t stop the Warriors for the duration, losing 102-96. Marcin Gortat had…
The federal government just approved the destruction of 2,000 acres of Sonoran Desert land in the southwest Valley for a new solar plant, but conservationists aren’t complaining.This time, anyway.Thomas Hulen, executive director of Friends of the Sonoran Desert National Monument, was one of seven environmentalists who signed a November 21…
There’s good news and bad news about the transformer that caught fire in Phoenix last night.The good news: the enormous plume of smoke that is currently drifting West over downtown Phoenix is non-toxic.The bad news: the smoke could be here for a while — Phoenix fire crews are going to…
