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'Solar City' Planned For Arizona

Posted by: Nate Berg

28 November 2007 - 5:00am

Plans are bubbling for a "solar city" in the Arizona desert -- a new town for more than 300,000 people that will be largely powered by solar panels.

"The prospective 33,000-acre development will include housing for 300,000 people as well as high-tech and commercial schemes."

"The town will export energy to the grid in the daytime but will have to import it at night as solar panels cannot produce electricity when the sun is down."

"It is thought the project will produce energy through a combination of photovoltaic (PV) panels on houses and solar farm technologies, where heat from the sun is used to generate steam and drive a turbine."

"Questions have been raised about the suitability of solar technology to the area, where intense heat and dust cut the lifespan of a PV panel to about half its normal length. But it is thought to be the only renewable option in Arizona, where there is little wind or water."

Full Story: Arup to design world’s first ‘solar city’ in Arizona
Source: Building, November 23, 2007
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