APS to donate solar power system to park

Beginning this spring, the visitor center at Canyon View Information Plaza will feature a new interpretive component that will turn attention skyward and educate visitors about Arizona's most abundant resource. Through a partnership between the Park Service and Arizona Public Service, the center will receive a solar panel installation that will take care of about a third of its electricity needs.

Grand Canyon's APS representative Don Keil said that his company contacted him about six months ago about a project here funded through the utility's Green Rate program.

"We were looking for an opportunity to put in a solar installation," Keil said. "They asked me, what do you think about Grand Canyon and I said, I think it's great. It's the best educational opportunity in the state."

The project, which is being done by Architecture and Environmental Associates

of Flagstaff, will install 84 panels on and around the visitor center, generating about 18 kilowatts of electricity. It will also include educational signage and a monitor that shows how much electricity is being generated in real time. Planners are on site this week with the project expected to be finished in March.

The $185,000 cost is being paid by customers in the Green Rates program, who agreed to pay extra per kilowatt hour to fund renewable energy projects throughout the state. Keil said this is exactly the kind of project the fund was set up to support.

"There's no better place to reach more people with the idea of solar energy," he said. "For the educational component the Park Service already has the interpretive staff."

The visitor center, which was built in 2000, has been underutilized because it was designed around a mass transit system that didn't materialize. That has changed this year with the addition of parking lots for private vehicles and the launch of a shuttle between CVIP and Tusayan during peak season.

Plans are also in the works to add a theater featuring an orientation film and more exhibits in the visitor center as well as a bicycle rental service.