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Pinal County urged to speed siting of solar and battery projects to meet surging electricity demand
Summary
Craig McFarland of Pinal Partnership told county officials that Arizona’s rapid growth in semiconductors and data centers is driving unprecedented electricity needs — including projects that may require hundreds to thousands of megawatts — and urged faster siting and collaboration to deploy solar, storage and other resources.
Craig McFarland, president and CEO of Pinal Partnership, told a Pinal County study session that Arizona’s electricity demand is growing "at an unprecedented rate" and warned the state must build power resources quickly to capture incoming economic opportunities.
McFarland said major recent investments — including semiconductor and data center projects — are already straining capacity. "For example, the Taiwan Semiconductor manufacturers alone requires 1,200 megawatts," he said, and he cited APS forecasts showing several thousand megawatts of new capacity will be needed to meet projected peak demand.
The presentation emphasized that no single technology can meet near-term needs. McFarland urged "an all of the above resource mix" with solar supplying daytime energy, battery storage and pumped hydro shifting output to evening hours, and flexible…
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