PHOENIX — Until now, visions of Arizona homes powered by renewable energy have centered mostly on rooftop solar panels or huge solar power plants in the desert.
A Spanish company setting up operations in the Phoenix area’s Valley of the Sun is promoting a new vision: developments built around generating stations providing solar power by day and generator power, preferably running on renewable fuels, after the sun goes down.
Aora Solar offers a community–scale power facility that can be built on a half acre and can generate 100 kilowatts, which the company says is enough for between 60 and 100 homes. The centerpiece is a 100–foot–tall, tulip–shaped tower that an array of mirrors hits with sunlight to turn a turbine with superheated air.
Aora is collaborating with Phoenix–based Sisener Engineering N.A., Corp., the U.S. branch of a Spanish firm that specializes in design engineering. The firms are seeking permits to build two solar towers in a research park near Sky Harbor International Airport and expect that to be completed within three months.
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Read more of this story Monday in the Arizona Daily Star and on StarNet.