Solon - A Great Green Gift to Tucson

I was happy to be invited to the ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of Solon Corporation here in Tucson yesterday. Even though it’s WAY out there by the airport, one of my first happy surprises was the number of people in attendance. There were hundreds of people present – all of whom were celebrating this great new business in Tucson.

Solon is a German-based company and one of the largest solar module manufacturers in Europe as well as an international leading provider of intelligent power plant solutions for large-scale projects. They manufacture state-of-the-art photovoltaic solar modules (actually polycrystalline and monocrystalline modules). A quote from one of their corporate leaders reads: “We are passionate fighters for the ecological change in the energy market. We revolutionize the usage of solar energy with our innovations. We are: The Pioneers of Power.” What a powerful statement and what a great intention.

So not only does it mean great, decent paying jobs for over 200 Tucsonans, it’s a feather in our City’s cap helping to position Tucson as one of the country’s leading solar cities. An immediate, measurable impact of having Solon in Tucson is that FORTY schools in nearby Cochise Country will be installing solar power in their schools. Do you have any idea how much money that will save their school district? And with the new solar tax credit bill passing in Congress, the school district will benefit from that as well.

Welcome to our community, Solon. Your manufacturing of solar modules makes you a partner we can all be proud of here in the Old Pueblo.

Thinking Globally and Acting Locally -Beijing/Tucson

This morning as I was doing my Mrs. Green's Research, think globally, act locally was the first thing that popped into my head after I read both the Wall Street Journal and the Arizona Daily Star.

Globally thinking, I am a bit perplexed about Beijing's notoriously bad air quality and how that fits into the need for all Olympians to breath the cleanest air possible as they compete for the gold. What were people thinking? How bad is it? Well, it's so bad that the U.S. Committee has developed a mask model for athletes in secrecy. Yes, what the mask is made of has still not been released. Athletes will be be in a position of choosing to wear the mask and risk insulting their host country or not wear a mask and literally risk losing their race. You can read all about it on the front page of today's WSJ. Beijing is doing everything possible to improve air quality during the games but the challenges are many with over 3.3 million cars taking to the road daily. Stay tuned.

And on the local front, it was heartening to see the title "Street signs sparkle in solar pilot program" in this morning's local paper. The Tucson Department of Transportation is testing solar powered caution signs to see if they stand up to heat and remain visible during the bright, sunny days in the Old Pueblo. Along the Mrs. Green journey, I have learned that too much heat is a huge challenge to almost solar-powered anything. Mild sunny days are best for solar power. And we have plenty of those so let's keep testing and trying!

Have a great day and do one great, green act!