Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild presenting at a Solar 101 event

The City of Tucson is committed to leading the way with solar installations on City properties. Since 1999, Tucson has installed 25 photovoltaic arrays and 7 solar hot water heaters on City properties, including community centers, the Tucson Convention Center, the City’s Price Service Center, police substations, a parking garage, a reservoir deck, etc. There are currently about 4.7 MW (megawatts) of solar power at these locations. The solar hot water installations are at a community center, two fire stations, a swimming pool and the police/fire training academy. Tucson is one of 25 cities designated as a Solar America City by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in recognition of this history of solar leadership. Tucson is also one of the few cities in Arizona to have a Solar Coordinator.

The City of Tucson works with Pima County, the Arizona congressional delegation, the Governor’s Office of Energy Policy, the Southern Arizona Regional Solar Partnership, and other groups to advance solar in Southern Arizona.

In addition:

The City has adopted "solar ready" requirements for all new construction of single family homes and duplexes to assure that future solar PV and hot water can be easily installed.
The City works with Pima County to make solar information available on the Solar One Stop.
The City makes available on-line live solar production data from many of its projects.
The City purchases solar power to operate some of Tucson Water’s pumps on the Central Arizona Project.
The City has leased land for large solar farms in the Avra Valley.
The City assisted the Barrio Centro neighborhood in installing solar street lights throughout the neighborhood.

Solar Links

Solar Sites Maintained by the City of Tucson

Click on the links below to view information about each solar site maintained by the City of Tucson.

Photovoltaic Installations
Clements Fitness Center 8155 E Poinciana Drive Installation Date: Mar 2005 Adjacent to the Ward IV Council Office, Clements Fitness Center was equipped with solar panels to power the Fitness Center.	El Rio Adult Education Center 1390 W Speedway Blvd Installation Date: Dec 2001 The El Rio Adult Education Center opens with roof-top panels. Operated by the Parks and Recreation Department, the panels were installed to power part of the Community Center.	Hardesty Service Center (Midtown Multi-Service Center) 1100 South Alvernon Way / 3825 East 22nd Street Installation Date: Dec 2003 The Patrick K. Hardesty Midtown Multi-Service Center opens with solar panels atop the roof, helping power operations for different city departments including Tucson Police and Tucons Water. The Hardesty Multi Service Center also boasts a solar daylighting design for added benefits.
Hayden Udall Treatment Plant Phases I-II 4401 S Tucson Estates Blvd Installation Date: 2002 The Hayden-Udall Water Treatment Facility Phase I array is the first City of Tucson solar project to take advantage of the many large parcels of land in the metropolitan area. Owned by Tucson Water, a total of five phases are scheduled to inhabit the space.	Pennington Street Garage 110 E Pennington Way Installation Date: Sep 2005 The Pennington Street Garage becomes the first City garage to utilize solar power, becoming the largest single solar project within the City of Tucson's facilities.	Thornydale Reservoir Phases I-III 11701 N Thornydale Road Installation Date: Located on a Water Reservoir north of Tucson, these panels were installed on an unused concrete roof. Maintained by Tucson Water, a total of five phases are planned for this site alone.
Ward IV Council Office/Southeast Service Center 8155 E Poinciana Drive Installation Date: Jul 1999 Home of Council Member Shirley Scott since 1995, the South-East Service Center (Ward IV) becomes the first City of Tucson owned facility to have solar power and have green building principles incorporated into all aspects of design.	Zoo School/Brown Conservation Learning Center 1100 S Randolph Way Installation Date: Feb 2008 The Lee H. Brown Family Conservation Learning Center opens as Tucson's first LEED Platinum certified facility, with both solar pv and solar thermal. You may also track its usage and performance online.	Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA) 10001 S. Wilmot Road Installation Date: June, 2009 The PSTA single-axis tracking array is a 472.5 kW DC CREBs project designed to more efficiently capture the sun's incident energy as the day progresses.
El Rio 1390 W. Speedway Blvd Installation Date: August, 2009 The El Rio array is a 23.29 kW DC CREBs project that uses fixed PV panels to generate electricity for the city.	El Pueblo 101 W. Irvington Rd. Installation Date: May, 2009 The El Pueblo array is a 97.65 kW DC CREBs project that uses fixed PV panels to generate electricity for the city.	Hayden-Udall Water Treatment Facility 4401 S. Tucson Estates Blvd Installation Date: July, 2009 The Hayden-Udall single-axis tracking array is a 226.8 kW DC CREBs project designed to more efficiently capture the sun's incident energy as the day progresses.
Information Technology 481 W. Paseo Redondo Installation Date: July, 2009 The IT array is a 34.65 kW DC CREBs project that uses fixed PV panels to generate electricity for the city.	Roger Road Reclamation 2600 W. Sweetwater Drive Installation Date: November, 2009 The Roger Road Reclamation Water Reservoir is a 110 kW DC CREBs solar array. This array was built on a reservoir deck as its special design allowed for a tracking system. Live Fat Spaniel Data	Parks Purchasing Warehouse 850 S. Randolph Way Installation Date: May, 2009 The Parks Purchasing Warehouse array is a 47.32 kW DC CREBs project that utilizes the unique Solyndra photovoltaic system in order to capture sunlight efficiently all day long.
Sun Tran Bus Maintenance Facility 3920 North Sun Tran Blvd Installation Date: December, 2009 The new Sun Tran Bus Maintenance Facility will be the newest home for Sun Tran. As part of the 2nd phase of the building process, solar was installed atop 6 steel canopies that shade parked buses.

Solar Hot Water Installations
Adaptive Recreation Center 3455 E Zoo Court Drive Installation Date: November 2004 With two pools placed at the Adaptive Recreation Center, one for therapeutic use which is heated from a boiler, and another for recreational use which uses the solar hot water heaters installed at the site.	Archer Neighborhood Center 1665 S La Cholla Blvd Installation Date: 2005/2006 In addition to servicing various applications in the Archer Neighborhood Center, the 3 collectors at the facility represent one of the City of Tucson's oldest solar projects.	Zoo School 1100 S Randolph Way Installation Date: Feb 2008 The Lee H. Brown Family Conservation Learning Center opens as Tucson's first LEED Platinum certified facility, with both solar pv and solar thermal.
Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA) 10001 S. Wilmot Road Installation Date: Feb 2008 Heating water for the Public Safety Training Academy facility, this system is accompanied by a solar photovoltaic system through the Clean and Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBS) program rated at 472.5 kW DC.	Fire Station #22 6810 S Alvernon Way Installation Date: Jan 2007 Built as the first LEED Certified Gold Fire Station in Arizona, Fire Station #22 opens as a Fire Station for the City of Tucson with solar water heating for site operational uses.	Fire Central 300 South Fire Central Place Installation Date: December 2009 3 different collectors heat water for the new Fire Central and help this facility meet a LEED certified Gold rating.

Tucson City Solar Installations

Solar Links

Solar Sites Maintained by the City of Tucson

Photovoltaic Installations

Solar Hot Water Installations