Homepage, Sweet (Solar), Homepage

Arizona’s new solar website, mentioned here yesterday, is now live at www.arizonagoessolar.org.

“The site’s name says it all,” Arizona Corporation Commission chair Kris Mayes told reporters at a formal unveiling this morning. “It isn’t called ‘Arizona went solar.’ It isn’t  ‘Arizona will go solar.’ It’s called ‘Arizona Goes Solar.’

“The Commission is hoping that Arizonagoessolar.org will be the meet-up place for every Arizonan who is interested in solar energy in our state,” explained  Mayes. “This website will increase the transparency of solar rebates and incentives, and provide a real-time look at where solar systems are being deployed and how much energy they can produce.”

Briefly, here are a few screen grabs showing some of the new site’s features.

Arizona Solar Map

For many, the most exciting and useful feature at the site is the mapping program. The site shows nearly every solar installation in the state by zip code. The information is supplied by the relevant utility company, and is updated every two weeks.

Say, for example, you’re considering installing solar panels at your home. Just plug in your zip code and see how many others have already gone solar.

Utility-scale solar projects are also mapped and can be located by zip code or simply by finding the blue utility icon on the map.

“The Arizona Goes Solar website will go a long way toward increasing transparency for solar installations,” said Commissioner Paul Newman. “We’ve heard a lot of complaints about the lack of information on solar reservations. This website will be a useful tool for solar installers, ratepayers, utilities and researchers.”

Details pop up when an icon is double-clicked. I plugged in my zip code and clicked on the icon to get the information seen in the graphic below. It shows a total of 26 residential installations in my area, with a total capacity of 88 kW.

You can also click on the “non-residential” tab to see details on commercial installations in your zip code. (There were none shown for mine, but that’s not too surprising. It’s a small residential neighborhood.)

Solar map detail

There’s useful information about various aspects of solar power in Arizona throughout the site. For a first time user, it’s particularly helpful for understanding some of the more esoteric areas, such as the state’s Renewable Energy Standard:

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) established the Renewable Energy Standard (RES) in August, 2007 to identify short– and long–term renewable energy requirements for the state. The long–term requirement is for 15 percent of retail energy sales from ACC–regulated electric utilities to come from renewable energy resources by the year 2025. The current RES requirement is 2.5 percent of total each utility’s retail sales in 2010 and the rules prescribe that 25 percent of that requirement is to come from distributed energy resources Distributed Energy resources are installed on the customer’s premises and are used to offset customer load, such as rooftop solar panels. Half of the distributed energy or customer–owned requirement must be met by systems among residential customers and the other half from business customers.

The site also includes information about various workshops held around the state…

…utilities…

…and links to tax credits, rebates and other incentives for renewable energy installations.

But there’s one thing you shouldn’t expect to find, Mayes told reporters at the unveiling: the names of politicians.

“This is the people’s page.” she said. “It’s designed solely to provide information on solar power. My hope,” concluded Mayes, who is term-limited out of the ACC this November, “is that it will remain just that.”

Starting tomorrow, Arizona residents and businesses wanting to ‘go solar,’ learn more about active solar projects in the state, or check out the latest benefits and incentives available for solar installation, will have a new tool: the Arizona Goes Solar website.

The website will be hosted by the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities under state law.

The contents of the site itself will be a collaborative effort between the ACC and electric utility companies with the goal of creating a “one-stop shop for homeowners and business owners” according to a statement released by the ACC yesterday.

The media advisory lists these participating companies:

• Ajo Improvement Company
• Arizona Public Service (APS)
• Duncan Valley Electric
• Graham County Electric
• Mohave Electric Cooperative
• Morenci Water and Electric Company
• Navopache Electric
• Salt River Project (SRP)
• Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative
• Trico Electric Cooperative
• Tucson Electric Power (TEP)
• Unisource Energy Services

When it comes to supporting renewables, and solar power in particular, the ACC is recognized as one of the most consumer- and business-friendly state bodies in the nation. Adding the Arizona Goes Solar website  will help the ACC–  and solar power — shine.

Commercial solar cells with dust shields in NASA lab (Photo by Dr. Carlos Calle)

Following up on Monday’s story on self-cleaning solar panels, I contacted Dr. Carlos Calle, senior research scientist at NASA’s Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory at the Kennedy Space Center, where the work originated. Calle was lead author of a fascinating 2009 technical article ($) on adapting the extra-terrestrial dust removal technology for solar panels here on Earth (and on the moon which has extremely fine dust particles).

The technology uses strategically placed electrodes to generate a electromagnetic wave that first lifts sunlight-blocking dust particles off the surface of the solar panel and then carries them away from the panel.

NASA's Dr. Carlos Calle

Calle’s lab made a variety dust shields, some rigid and opaque, some flexible and transparent. These were placed on top of off-the-shelf solar panels squares measuring two inches on each side. The test square were then covered with fine dust particles (roughly the size of the width of a human hair). In the journal article, Calle reports that “the transparent dust shields applied to commercial solar panels operate successfully under high vacuum even under extreme dust loading conditions that caused the solar cell performance to drop to 11-23%” of its normal output.

In fact, only the dustiest test cell (11% of normal performance) failed to reach 98.4% of normal output after the dust shield was activated. One panel (20.3% of normal) regained 99.4% of its electrical output after the dust curtain was energized.

I asked Calle if he thought water would still be needed to augment the dust shields. He was confident that the technology would “eliminate the need for water cleaning of solar panels.”

At this stage, Calle isn’t ready to speculate on how much the dust shields will add to the cost of a PV panel. However, given the simplicity of the design, the fact that so little power is needed to remove nearly all the dust, and the money saved by not using water in a desert, the dust shields will likely be attractive to manufactures, rooftop installers and utilities building large-scale solar PV projects in the desert.