Clean Energy and Renewable Resources Potential on Twin Buttes Ranch

Clean energy and renewable resources – like wind and solar power – are subjects near and dear to the hearts of anybody who loves the land.  It’s important to explore these options, always seeking to improve them, so that we might better take care of our country, and provide competitive power sources. 

In our corner of Northeastern Arizona there are two renewable energy options that are especially attractive and viable for commercial development: Solar Power and Wind Energy.

Solar Power

It’s a commonly held belief that the sun shines in Arizona. 

And in Northeastern Arizona it’s fairly true.  We have our gray and rainy days, but mostly we have bright sunshine year round.  A typical winter jacket is a wind breaker…and so on. 

We see a lot of snowbirds coming down from Canada on I40 in the wintertime, and just as many fleeing the warmer temperatures in the summer.  So it’s no surprise that using solar power to create electricity has long been considered an attractive development opportunity in Arizona.

I know some smart people who say it isn’t such a good idea – and it really hasn’t been developed for commercial use in the state so far as I know, yet. 

But what I can speak to with authority is my own experience with solar power energy.

Running a Home with Renewable Resources

Back in 1998 my wife and I made the difficult decision to move our small family onto a corner of the Twin Buttes Ranch so we could be closer to the day-to-day running of the ranch. 

Because the section where we chose to settle was 5 miles away from the highway – and the power lines – we explored the (at that time) brand new option of a home solar power system.  Then we built it.

Although at the time we adopted a renewable energy resource as a point of pure practicality, over the years I fell quite in love with it. 

For 13 years we powered our headquarters, and raised three children, off of two sets of solar panels.  I found that solar energy was more practical – both in terms of usage and renewable cost/benefits – than living on “the grid” had ever been. 

Which is not to say that the experience didn’t have its challenges. 

Over time we learned ways of managing the sunlight best in each season, and we did use a small generator on the occasions when the sun didn’t shine enough to power the whole home.  I’ve also kept up with the evolution of solar power over the years, and I think some of the new innovations would have saved me a lot of time and aggravation back in the day. 

But for my part I can say that solar power is a viable, and highly attractive, way of powering a home, a headquarters, or even for commercial development, in the sunny state of Arizona. 

Also new technology involving saltwater ponds to improve the solar power generation amazingly create freshwater as a byproduct.  As it happens, there is a sea of saltwater under TBR…who would have thought there could be such a purpose for it?

The electricity those turbines generate – and the blades are seldom still – goes to Cholla Power Plant, which supplies electrical power to most of our corner of the state. 

These Renewable Resources are Just the Beginning

Wind and solar are in abundance in Northeastern Arizona.  In these days of constant technological advances it seems we are only limited by our imaginations.

The country in general has a lot of potential.  And, thanks to the wideness of the ranch and the abundance of natural resources already on, it is my firm belief that TBR has even more potential than the rest of the Holbrook Basin. 

In short a lot of good could come from investments placed into these available assets. 

With a major railroad, highways, and power lines already in place, it seems the risks would be worth it.