Tempe wants Valley residents to know its Beach Park for the Town Lake, its numerous festivals, a historic baseball diamond - and now, solar panels.
The city is installing the panels as a high-visibility demonstration project to promote green energy, along with Arizona Public Service. The utility chose the Tempe site in a statewide competition to locate solar panels in prominent places.
With one million visitors a year, Tempe Beach Park fit the bill.
The panels will replace a shade structure now covered with a blue canvas, near the splash pad play area. A new structure with river rock pylons will support the panels, and tables will sit underneath to create a gathering area. Signs will outline how the panels turn sun into electricity.
"Part of the goal that the city has is to provide education to the public," said Amanda Nelson, a Tempe spokeswoman.
Construction should begin soon, she said. The city would like to debut the panels on April 22, which is Earth Day.
The city will spend $50,000 on the panels, which is about 38 percent of their cost. The remainder will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Tempe estimates the panels will generate $1,643 worth of electricity a year, which will be used to power some equipment at the 25-acre park.
The city uses solar panels to power signs that display driver speeds, on a light at the Town Lake marina and a few other places.
"There are a few little things here and there but this would definitely be the biggest one," Nelson said.
The panels will occupy a popular gathering area at the park and will be in view from the eastbound Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway, the southbound Mill Avenue bridge and Rio Salado Parkway. They'll also be visible to the crowds who gather for events such as the Fourth of July festival, New Year's Eve party, music festivals, Oktoberfest and the P. F. Chang's Rock ‘N Roll Marathon.
az2008 posted at 8:11 am on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.
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.
NUCat posted at 11:51 am on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.
"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".
EmperorSmith posted at 1:09 pm on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.
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.
Ben Goren posted at 2:05 pm on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.
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&
DeadEye posted at 6:58 pm on Sun, Feb 6, 2011.
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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