Air Force's Largest Solar Project Planned for Davis-Monthan Base in Arizona
Tucson Sentinel, by Ryan Revock, June 14, 2013
Construction of the largest solar energy array in the U.S. Air Force
will begin at the end of June on Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
The 14.5-Megawatt Photo Voltaic Array Project will see 57,000 solar
panels cover two sites on 170 acres of unusable land on base. The
project is expected to be fully operational by mid-December and to save
the base $500,000 per year in energy costs. The base currently pays 8.6
cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity, but the rate for the power
supplied from the solar array will be 4.5 cents. That rate is projected
to increase by 1.5 percent per year. The cost of installing and
maintaining the solar array is the responsibility of Sun Edison, the
company building the project. However, Sun Edison has declined to
comment on the cost of the project.
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