A renewable energy advocate filed the first citizen initiative of the 2012 election, proposing a dramatic expansion of Arizona’s tax incentives for solar power and a state-run exchange that would buy and sell special credits for solar power.

Construction should begin within a month on a “waterless” 700-megawatt solar power project in Maricopa County that won a $359.1 million conditional loan guarantee this week from the Department of Energy.

Deep within the canyon, a few miles removed from the mule trains of the popular Bright Angel Trail, Horn Creek creates a ribbon of green vegetation here before plunging toward the Colorado River.

But the handful of people allowed to camp in this splendid isolation receive a warning with their permits: Don’t drink the water when Horn Creek is flowing. It’s radioactive.

Some local governments had already been investing in solar projects before federal stimulus grants were available, but now many more cities and counties are doing so. Experts say to expect more solar projects to pop up around Arizona and the rest of the country as local governments face a deadline of using stimulus money by the end of 2012.

The Arizona Corporation Commission wants to make sure electric utilities are ready for the summer high-use energy season.

A state Court of Appeals decision upholds the Arizona Corporation Commission’s requirement that regulated electric utilities get some of their power from solar and other renewable sources.

Yavapai County supervisors rejected the proposed construction of a meteorological tower that could have served as a test for a possible wind farm on a ranch northwest of Prescott.

Operators of the nation’s largest nuclear power plant near Phoenix have met with Arizona utility regulators to assess safety procedures in the wake of Japan’s nuclear accident.

In the event of an emergency at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, plant officials and government leaders will now have access to a $13.5 million center that will help them respond and share information with the public.

A public meeting to put some light on the federal government’s plan for developing solar energy is scheduled in Tucson Wednesday night.