Rosemont Copper unveiled a solar-energy test site Wednesday near the company's administrative offices in the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains, where the company is vying to open a mine.
The Rosemont Copper Solar Proving Grounds was formally dedicated with officials of Tucson Electric Power Co. and the University of Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy (AzRISE), which will monitor the five systems installed there.
Rosemont has said it plans to evaluate the solar technologies and possibly use one or more of the systems on its administrative headquarters and other buildings. The company has stressed a commitment to sustainable technologies as it seeks approvals of permits to open the mine, amid opposition from environmentalists and some area residents.
In 2010, after a review of 35 proposals, Rosemont awarded five companies $100,000 each to develop the solar technologies that are being tested at the Solar Proving Grounds. The five systems have a combined rated capacity of about 90 kilowatts, or enough to power about 30 homes.
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Though most of the technologies are proven, the proving grounds will help define which technologies might work best at the proposed mine site, said Bill Leedy, a local energy consultant on the project.
"This is a very important first step - it's going to tell us a lot about how these technologies will perform in this terrain," Leedy said.
Vincent Lonij, an AzRISE intern at the Solar Proving Grounds, is developing a performance monitoring system and creating a way to present the generating data from the installations via an on-site visitors' kiosk. Another AzRISE intern, Adria Brooks, is helping with data collection and analysis and is planning a solar-energy curriculum that includes hands-on research at the Solar Proving Grounds with area high school students.
The five projects are:
• A 10.8-kW concentrating photovoltaic project installed by Parsons Electric, using modules from Energy Innovations with lenses that concentrate sunlight on high-efficiency silicon PV cells, on mounts that track the sun morning to evening and season to season.
• A 19.7-kW system installed by Empire Power Systems that uses Kyocera polycrystalline silicon cells and single-axis tracking.
• A 20.7-kW fixed-tilt array installed by Solar Gain, using QS Solar thin-film amorphous silicon modules.
• A 19.3-kW system by Solar Gain, using flexible, thin-film semiconductor panels made by Tucson-based Global Solar Energy and mounted on a membrane laid on the ground.
• A 19.4-kW polycrystalline silicon system installed by Tucson-based Solon Corp., using Solon panels and fixed-rack mounting.
The Solar Gain-Global Solar installation replaces one proposed by an initial grant awardee, Edge Energy, which withdrew its plans for a system using new thermoelectric technology.
Rosemont dedicated the solar proving grounds in the memory of Bob Dame, a local consultant on the project with DLM Associates who died of cancer in April.
DID YOU KNOW?
The proposed Rosemont open-pit mine would extract 220 million pounds of copper a year and employ 400 people on private and public land in the Santa Rita Mountains, about 30 miles southeast of Tucson. Augusta Resource Corp., parent company for Rosemont Copper, hopes to start mine operations in 2012.
The U.S. Forest Service plans to release its draft environmental impact statement on Rosemont this year.
Contact Assistant Business Editor David Wichner at dwichner@azstarnet.com or 573-4181.