On several policy matters like climate change and health care, Arizona often butts heads with the U.S. government.

But step outside the Capitol mall, and you’ll see a modern building with solar panels on its rooftop.

A proposed waste-to-energy plant in Phoenix is being touted by supporters as a source of renewable energy and a way to minimize the amount of trash in landfills. But critics of the project argue that the waste incinerators aren’t as green as supporters make them out to be — and the proposal has a loophole that could allow a utility to get renewable energy credit for burning fossil fuels.

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.

Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service policies discourage the development of solar projects, an executive for Tempe-based First Solar told congressional lawmakers this week.

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

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.

With government entities at all levels scrambling to balance budgets, it’s not surprising that there is a reluctance to undertake costly, new projects.

Arizona’s sunny, dry weather makes it the perfect location for farming algae to produce renewable fuels, an executive of a national biofuels group said Monday.

A recent ruling by the Arizona Corporation Commission allows customers of UniSource Energy Services, which provides electricity to 230,000 people in rural areas of northern and southern Arizona, to receive power line extensions for free if the distance is 400 feet or less.