Navajo County Solar + Storage

We pledge to treat the environment with respect, not only for the private landowners we lease from but for the neighbors who love the Navajo County landscape and wildlife.

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Chimney Canyon Energy Center's design is being informed by direct guidance from the Arizona Game & Fish Department and Navajo County to allow area wildlife to pass through the area and minimize habitat impacts.

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Protecting water should be apriority for everyone in Arizona, including energy producers. The county's ordinance requires developers to submit a preliminary water resource study identifying all water sources/watercourses and impacts.

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The Chimney Canyon Energy Center will access water from an existing well on-site. We are estimating our water use to be: 

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• - 0.02-0.3 acre-feet per acre during construction, used for dust control. That is roughly eight times less than single-family residential subdivision water use per acre.
• - Operational water use will be near zero. A typical Arizona solar farm uses roughly 0.001-0.03 acre-feet per acre for annual panel washing, about 80 times lespanel washing most years.

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Photovoltaic solar is among the least water-intensive ways to generate electricity — using thousands of times less water than a traditional power plant.

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Safety is Clearway’s #1 core value, with multiple layers of protection built into every facility we design and operate. We believe that everyone in Navajo County must do their part to prevent brush fire – including us.

In addition to coordinating with local fire authorities for emergency preparedness, we design our facilities following best practices for fire mitigation.

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Battery storage systems in particular are highly regulated. Clearway builds several layers of protection into every facility, including:

• Strict adherence to all relevant codes and standards including NFPA 855 (the national fire code for energy storage) and UL 9540A, which tests batteries for fire safety.
• Using batteries with advanced chemistry rated for higher temperatures.
• Batteries sit in highly-engineered individual enclosures with built-in monitoring and detection to deploy automatic shutoff if batteries overheat.
• In the unlikely event of a fire, the enclosures also prevent spread between parts of the system.

While we don't expect fires or other safety incidents at the Chimney Canyon Energy Center, it's our responsibility to make sure local first responders are prepared for every scenario.

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Per the county ordinance, we are coordinating with local fire departments to ensure they are aligned with our plans and prepared for any scenario. Our executed Fire Service Agreement with Joseph City Fire Department includes $10,000/year in funding, plus annual training covering site layout, access points and technology-specific hazards.

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We will also submit a Fire Safety Plan and Emergency Management Plan, which would become enforceable under our negotiated Development Agreement.

We're proud to source American-made equipment wherever possible. Solar manufacturing has grownrapidly in the U.S. in recent years, and we've already secured panels made in Texas for Chimney Canyon.

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Additionally, we are partnering with SOLV as our engineering, procurement and construction contractor for this facility. SOLV has an established solar workforce in the region, having built multiple Navajo County solar facilities to date, and will be required to prioritize local hiring.

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Restoring the land at the end of a project’s life should always be the owner's responsibility — not the community's. As the long-term owner, Clearway is responsible for every step of decommissioning: removing and recycling equipment and re-vegetating the site. Per Navajo County's requirements, we'll post a security bond with a regulated financial institution to fund this work, payable on demand.