Many say if you can't make solar energy work in Southern Arizona, you can't make it work anywhere. On the campus of the University of Arizona, researchers are spending a great deal of time making sure that solar energy will be a viable source of electricity in the years to come.

However, university officials aren't waiting for researchers to complete their work. Instead, the university is going ahead with a plan to showcase solar power while at the same time cutting the campus carbon footprint.

The first part of that plan is a solar array above a parking garage in front of the main administration building. Not only will the array provide some power to campus, it also is adding some much-needed shady parking.

The garage is the first of five UA buildings that will sport rooftop panels. The panels will generate either electricity or hot water for the buildings where they will be located. The roughly 200 kilowatts of electricity produced by the panels on the garage will go toward powering that building's operations.

Ralph Banks, assistant director of UA Planning, Design and Construction, says any excess power will be channeled into the university's electric grid for use elsewhere on campus. He says the roughly 200 kilowatts of electricity produced by the panels on the garage will go toward powering that building's operations. Two hundred kilowatts would power about 50 homes, says Banks.

Leonard Byrd, the project development manager for APS Energy Services, says it took about six months to plan for this phase of the Second Street Garage. That included a structural analysis to make sure the garage could accommodate the additional steel and concrete that support the panels.

Byrd says APS Energy Services will own and operate the systems and the UA will buy the power output. The technology behind the project is all "tried and true," says Byrd.

Four other buildings are slated to have solar panels. McClelland Hall and McClelland Park will be fitted with electricity-producing photovoltaic panels. The Hillenbrand Aquatic Center and the Student Recreation Center will get solar thermal panels to generate hot water for their swimming pools and showers.

When the UA and APS Energy Services announced the project on April 22, President Robert Shelton said the long-term goal was for the UA to generate 40 percent of its own power.

( Story by Christopher Conover and Robert Rappaport )