Arizona Weatherization funds still available!

...link provided by Angie Fretz

Back in January and February of this year, Jay Fretz & Angie Fretz had their home Weatherized professionally. They received funding as part of the Low Income Weatherization Program, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was passed in 2009, or aka The Stimulus Package. Their experiences was a great one, and is documented here for the January part, and here for the February part.

In a recent article from the Arizona Republic on September 19th and related side article from the same day, much of this money is still unspent and available for use. The grants so far have helped about 2,200 homes in the Metro-Phoenix area be weatherized out of the anticipated 6,400 homes. With many of this help still available, if you are thinking of weatherizing your home, now would be a great time to consider it. Last year, more than 1,200 additional people were trained and put back to work to help with this project. Les Woody who oversees this program for the state says that the average home could get up to $5,500 worth of free repairs through the grant money and rebates. The department has until 2012 to spend the funds, but weatherizing your house now will save you money month after month, and reduce your energy consumption!

---Justin J. Stewart (link via Angie Fretz)

Solana Generating Station in Gila Bend, AZ gets federal funding

...link via Kevin Fretz

The Solana Solar Station in Gila Bend that has been drawn up for a few years has finally received federal funding to start building the project. This project was championed by many Arizonians that felt that solar power was the way to go in the state. Finally getting the green-light and the funds is a huge relief to those excited about the project.

From the Arizona Republic:

"The 280-megawatt plant will be able to generate enough electricity to serve 70,000 houses at once when running at full capacity, and will be able to make power during the peak hours of demand from about 4-7 p.m. when traditional solar panels generate little electricity the low light of dusk."

The project will also add over 1,600 jobs to the Arizona economy, and use less water than the farmland that is currently there. The original website owner, Jay, was a huge fan of this project, and so was I when I first caught wind of it, and read about it. Looks like it will open in 2013. Here is a link to the article:

Arizona solar plant gets big boost from feds.

---Justin J. Stewart, link and news article via Kevin Fretz