Salt River Project has partnered with Clēnera, a private renewable energy company, to bring Arizona its largest solar plant by 2024. Construction of the CO Bar Solar plant will begin this year on 2,400 acres of private land northwest of Flagstaff in Coconino County.

Yes, sunny Arizona is an ideal state for solar power. As it gets cheaper, the state should use solar whenever it makes financial sense. But politicians shouldn’t force you to buy it regardless of cost. It doesn’t make sense to insert into the state Constitution a requirement on energy use that locks Arizona into 50 percent wind and solar. Betting the state’s financial future and job base on wind and solar power is a huge risk to Arizona’s economic health.

The long-term viability of independently produced solar power could hinge on who voters pick to serve as state utility regulators.

I want to respond to APS CEO Don Brandt, and what he wrote in a recent opinion piece in another publication last week entitled “APS serves Arizona. Solar guys? Not so much.”

I believe many of the Arizona Corporation Commission’s recent decisions to this date surrounding net metering have done more harm than good to our local economy, to businesses like mine, and especially to low-income and middle-class families throughout the state (who would benefit the most from rooftop solar).

I have been involved with utilities and regulatory work for almost 40 years. During that time I have seldom seen an administrative law judge understand and articulate the issues at hand with the clarity and knowledge Judge Teena Jibilian did recently.

Jeff Guldner Jeff Guldner I appreciate Pat Quinn’s service as director of the Residential Utility Consumer’s Office (RUCO), but I was surprised by his recent description of what happened when the Arizona Corporation Commission first addressed the cost shifting resulting from rooftop solar and net metering in 2013. I was also disappointed by his characterization of the current grid access charge case.

Brandon Cheshire is all in. He founded his own solar company, SunHarvest Solar, in 2009, and he has seen it grow steadily since then. He’s also willing to work with or around solar fees to bring in more customers.

Two young boys grip their handlebars as they peddle a furious pace of 20 mph, breathlessly arguing who will win the race. One furrows his brow as his older brother stands behind him and yells, “Go faster!”

Talk of a “death spiral” for utilities or speculation about an existential threat from rooftop solar is off base, APS insists. John Hatfield, the utility’s VP of communications, told our reporter last week that the narrative about a battle pitting the utilities against rooftop solar is “compelling but false.”