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Executive Summary

The Arizona Department of Commerce (ADOC) has the legislated responsibility to develop
a 10‐year economic plan for the state of Arizona (AZ). In its role as AZ’s strategic economic
research and initiatives entity, the Commerce and Economic Development Commission
(CEDC) commissioned this project to help inform the strategy for future business
development in the solar industry. Solar (along with water and  sustainable  manufacturing)
was identified in the 2004 ʺSustainable Systems Prospectusʺ as an ʺeconomy definingʺ
industry opportunity  for  AZ  based  on  the  R&D  strengths  of  its  university  system and
building  on  its  presence  as  one  of  three  solar  labs  in  the  world.
 
Several  international  solar  energy  companies  have  recently  expressed  interest  in  AZ  
due  to  the  number  of days of  sunshine  and  the  existing  solar  electric  infrastructure.
AZ  has  the  potential  to  become  a  world  leader in  many  aspects  of  solar  
development,  and  is a  model  location for  the  evolution  of  new  solar  technologies  and
applications. The two primary goals of the project were to provide a framework that would:
 
• Accelerate the use and adoption of solar technologies in the market and applications
to increase energy self‐reliance, enhance energy security and protect the
environment in AZ, and
• Describe the conditions that could enable AZ to move toward a leadership position
in the research, development, manufacturing and deployment of solar technology by
adopting the recommendations and potentially designing a series of demonstration
activities.
 
The project objectives were to:
 
1. Describe the necessary conditions for the solar electric industry to make investments
in AZ that will result in widespread solar electric deployment of:
– centralized generation, distributed generation, building practices, local
infrastructure support, workforce development, manufacturing and research  
2. Describe and recommend the environmental conditions and policy options that will
assist AZ in choosing the optimal portfolio of solar electric energy options  
3. Review the potential to increase jobs in solar energy