CENTER FOR ADVANCED SPINAL SURGERY OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA GOES GREEN WITH ROOF-MOUNTED SOLAR SYSTEM – THE GRID-TIED SOLAR SYSTEM COVERS 70 – 85% OF OUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION.

Solar Facts

“The extraction, conversion, and utilization of energy is the single largest component of air and water pollution, as well as emissions causing the change of our global climate.”

-Christine A. Ervin, Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Department of Energy), 1997

Doctors attribute 50,000 American deaths per year to airborne particulate matter, about one-third of which comes from powerplants.

Solar energy comes in many forms. Photovoltaics (PV) convert sunlight directly to electricity and are now being used to power everything from roadside phones to suburban homes. Solar energy is also used to heat pools and to produce hot water, saving consumers millions of dollars annually. Large scale solar power plants now generate enough clean electricity to power thousands of homes day and night, rain or shine.

What is a grid-tied system?

A grid-tied solar system is a photovoltaic (PV) system interacting with the utility, and can be with or without batteries, that utilizes an inverter that can actually sell any excess power produced by our solar array back to the TEP utility grid. The local utility company TEP buys back any excess electricity that we produce at whole sale rate thereby “net metering” our grid-tie PV system. Our system has only one utility kWh meter and it is allowed to spin in either direction depending on if we are buying or selling energy.