ACE Southwest is approaching its six-year anniversary of installing four solar photovoltaic systems on its member housing properties in Flagstaff. ACE aims to prevent financial hardship for stipended Corps Members through providing free housing during their project off-days. ACE is equally dedicated to reducing its greenhouse gas footprint and mitigating climate change through replacing its non-renewable electricity generating sources with Arizona’s indefinite supply of solar energy.
In the fall of 2010, ACE was awarded $50,000 from Arizona Department of Commerce in addition to $26,000 in rebates from Arizona Public Service Company to install solar systems on four ACE member housing units. Local solar provider, Prometheus Solar installed the systems and continues to ensure that the systems perform at the optimal level.
Between the spring of 2011 and September 2016, the four ACE solar systems have collectively produced 117 Megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity. 117 million watt hours of electricity powered by ACE’s solar systems offset the equivalent of 82 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the carbon offset equivalent of 2,127 trees. That combined level of solar electricity production is the greenhouse gas equivalent of approximately 17 passenger vehicles driving for an entire year OR the CO2 emission equivalent to 87,742 pounds of coal being burned, 9,252 gallons of gasoline being consumed or 2,915 incandescent lamps being switched to LEDs!
All solar systems have been operating strong at ACE Southwest since 2011, collectively producing 1.7 MWh of solar energy and the carbon offset equivalent of 2,706 lbs. (32 trees) in August. ACE is proud of its systems and seeks to continue advancing a clean energy future. ACE was able to calculate its greenhouse gas and CO2 emission equivalencies using the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions calculator located here.