Arizona solar industry growing thanks to Rep. Giffords

Even as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) struggles to recover from the senseless act of violence this past weekend that left her with a head wound, six dead and 12 others injured, her impact on the solar industry may make Arizona the second largest market for solar by 2014.

With excellent solar resources, and power-hungry California next door, the state already is seeing explosive growth in installations, thanks to legislation Giffords helped pass.

While Arizona won’t surpass California as the country’s solar leader, it is poised to come close to, if not surpass, New Jersey, the second largest solar state in the U.S.

“They’ll become neck-to-neck by 2014,” said Shayle Kann, GTM Research managing director of solar research. “They’re far and away the top two. There’s a clash of tertiary markets.” Contenders for third place include Colorado and Illinois, he added.

Asked whether Giffords’ work in the U.S. House of Representatives has elevated Arizona’s rankings in terms of solar, Kann responded with one word, “Absolutely.”

In a letter sent to Solar Energy Industries Association members, SEIA President Rhone Resch said, “For our industry, she has constantly positioned herself as one of the go-to champions for solar in the House of Representatives.”

He explained that her accomplishments have included supporting the 8-year extension of the solar investment tax credit and also the one-year extension of the 1603 Treasury Grant Program.

She also introduced the Solar Technology Roadmap Act, which passed the House, but was not introduced in the Senate. The bill would “dedicate over $2 billion to new research partnerships and demonstration projects to accelerate the deployment of commercialized solar energy technologies,” said Resch. She’s not only a supporter of renewable energy legislation. In 2010 she and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, put a 2 kilowatt system on their Arizona home.

As a result of Giffords work, Arizona has become a hotbed of solar activity. As just a smattering of what’s going on in the state, there’s the 250 megawatt Solano project being built by Abengoa concentrating solar plant, which will be quickly dwarfed by the 600 MW Mesquite photovoltaic plant being built by Sempra Generation near Phoenix, Ariz.

A number of other solar projects being built in the may just yet allow the state to achieve the mantle of “Solar King” as espoused during Governor Jan Brewer’s (R) recent acceptance speech.

We here at Clean Energy Authority have Rep. Giffords in our prayers.

Pictured: Rep. Giffords under a solar carport at the Arizona State University Tempe's campus, courtesy of ASU.