Tempe brings solar panels to Town Lake's Beach Park

6 comments:

• lynxfri12 posted at 8:48 pm on Wed, Nov 30, 2011.

  Posts: 8

  I just came across your site and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
  -steel suppliers

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• DeadEye posted at 6:58 pm on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.

  Posts: 22

  The only thing this Republic like story is missing is a picture of the Tempe mayor and city council throwing the switch. People in Tempe need the news and hard reporting. We get enough puff from the Republic.

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• Ben Goren posted at 2:05 pm on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.

  Posts: 3

  NUCat wrote: "A 5 year CD's annual earnings would buy almost twice as much electricity and the taxpayers would still have their original $131,578.95 "investment"."

  Those figures certainly don't tell the whole story.

  The $50K the city will spend is about enough to pay for an 8KW residential installation, before all incentives. A system that size would generate about the $1,600 / year in electricity the article cites.

  Clearly, the additional $80K from ARRA will be for construction of a structure in the middle of a public park. That's a sizable chunk of change to an individual, but peanuts for a public works project of this scale. Think of it: it's a public structure the size of a house in the middle of a playground with an electric roof. Think of the engineering and safety requirements, and you should be impressed that it can be built for substantially less than the typical home resale value in the city.

  I know *I'm* impressed.

  Cheers,

  b&

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• EmperorSmith posted at 1:09 pm on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.

  Posts: 774

  I like solar power. I do not know what Tempe is trying to prove other than make there city folks happy when they walk by the lake. I also remember when the lake was a river and walking across it water to my knees, why I had to do that is classified.

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• NUCat posted at 11:51 am on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.

  Posts: 2

  "The panels will generate $1,638 worth of electricity per year". At that rate the project will pay back its $131,578.95 cost in 80+ years. The problem is though that current technology solar panels will barely last 20 years.
  A 5 year CD's annual earnings would buy almost twice as much electricity and the taxpayers would still have their original $131,578.95 "investment".

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• az2008 posted at 8:11 am on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.

  Posts: 307

  There's nothing green about wasting water. Tempe residents' water bills have almost doubled in the past 3-4 years due to the costs of filling that toilet.

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