JOSEPH CITY, AZ (AZFamily) — A solar energy center is coming to Northern Arizona just outside of Joseph City as the area moves away from non-renewable energy and looks toward alternative energy sources.

The solar farm will allow Arizona Public Service (APS) to improve grid reliability as the state experiences more growth in the future and provides much-needed jobs in Navajo County.

The Hashknife Solar Energy Center has been in the works between APS and Invenergy for almost 10 years.

Construction officially began Thursday for the first phase of the project. Once completed, the farm can produce and store 475 megawatts of energy, which Tim Rusert, APS’ director of power supply, said is needed as population and demand booms.

“We’re expecting 40% higher customer load in the next 10 years,” he said. “We’ve set the highest all-time power use in the last two years in a row and we do expect that to continue.”

Once fully completed, the center will be able to power 110,000 homes and invest almost $50 million in Navajo County; the site also helps APS rely less on non-renewable energy sources.

“APS looks for a balanced portfolio of resources,” Rusert said. All one type is not healthy for the reliability of the grid.”

The solar center is being built next to the Joseph City Coal Plant, closing next year.

Invenergy’s director of renewable development, Paul Berman, said part of the power infrastructure is already built in.

“Solar is a really great utilization of the transmission lines that are already here,” Berman said. “The energy infrastructure that is already here and can help bring so jobs back as jobs are starting to leave from the coal facility.”

Chris Pastor with Navajo County said that with more uncertainty about the future of other coal plants, increasing renewable energy jobs in the county is important.

“Then you start to go, ‘okay we lost 10″ jobs at this coal plant but we’ve got 120 across these other smaller businesses or smaller projects,’” Pastor said. “That’s the way we’re approaching this diversification strategy.”

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