Pardon me for bragging on Arizona, just a little. Our state is not looked on in favor by our government masters. The Obama Administration has shown that disfavor time and again when it comes to funding programs, or allocating government gravy.
Arizona receives an average of $38 dollars per capita in both commercial and government capital investment....the average, by state, is $158. California and New York get the lion's share of that capital.
And yet Arizona just keeps on "trucking"...turning out innovation after innovation, the largest bite coming from private innovation!
As an example, First Solar, an Arizona based company, has teamed up with researchers at Arizona State University to develop solar cells that will double the current voltage output of solar cells now in use. This technology will accomplish two things; you'll need far fewer solar panels up there on the roof and the connection to the grid (the largest expense associated with installing home solar) will have installation costs shaved dramatically.
Or let's look at our Palo Verde Nuclear Facility. Unlike California, who required sea water to cool their cooling towers, our nuclear plant uses treated waste water from Arizona homes. The water is treated, then flows through a 38 mile pipeline, out to Palo Verde, where it is treated again, then used to cool those cooling towers. We aren't using valuable fresh water, nor are we negatively impacting the environment. How's that working out? Well, we've never had a nuclear incident, and even on 120 degree days we barely use more than 50 percent of the facilities generating capacity.
Last but not least is the Tres Rios Reclamation Wet Lands facility just outside Phoenix. This facility recycles both liquid and solid wastes from our households, extracts the solids, treats them, with the solid by products used to fertilize non food crops. The water is treated as well, then recycled into wetlands to allow fish and fowl to thrive in this man made habitat. Tres Rios Wetlands has won all kinds of environmental awards and pays for itself! Over at Tres Rios they extract the methane, treat it, then send it via a natural gas pipeline over to California...who pay us for that natural gas and enrich our own pockets!
Arizona has hundreds of these projects underway....some funded by Intel, some by Apple and many other commercial concerns.
Arizona is doing fine without Obama's gravy...thank you!
2 comments:
good on Arizona! We should all learn from their example!
Good morning, Jerry. I read an interview by members of Arizona Technology Council and was amazed at all that's going on. Yes, we need more of this across the nation.
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