Palo Verde Generating Station Powers the Southwest
Arizona’s Palo Verde Generating Station is located just 50 miles west of the heart of Phoenix and is the nation’s largest power producer of any kind, yet most Arizonans don’t even know it exists!
The plant has been located in Tonopah for more than 25 years – producing 32 million megawatt-hours annually of clean and carbon-free energy and sending it to the grid. That’s enough power for more than 4 million people.
Once every 18 months, each of the three reactors on-site is shut down for 30 days for a scheduled “outage”. At this time, one third of the fuel cells (that have been used continuously for the last 4.5 years!) are replaced and the reactor undergoes routine cleaning and maintenance. While workers safely perform their maintenance duties, select tours can enter, too. (We were the lucky guests!)
This month, Palo Verde hosted sixteen members of Local First Arizona for a complete tour of the plant, and provided the rare opportunity to suit up and enter containment: the iconic dome constructed of ¼” welded steel-lined, 4-foot thick concrete. Attendees included members of the Local First Arizona Sustainability Team, local business owners, professors, and local influencers. APS provided this transparent dive into how the plant works and how it fits into our future as a source of clean energy.
“The Palo Verde Generating Station is human-intensive electric. It’s really good for jobs.” observed Mike McGinn. And it’s backed up by the numbers: the plant has 2,500 full-time employees. An additional 900 to 1,000 contractors are employed twice yearly during the outages.
“Before visiting, I thought of Palo Verde Generating Station as a risky liability on the outskirts of town,” reflected one participant. “But after seeing the operations in person and walking inside the reactor, I now see that we actually have an important power plant on the outskirts of town.”
As the heart of the APS generation fleet, the Palo Verde Generating Station provides the foundation for the reliable energy supply Valley residents have come to rely on. But in addition to ensuring a steady and reliable base of energy, the plant is a huge part of our local community. APS publishes the following attributes:
Economic Impact
Palo Verde provides an annual economic impact of more than $2 billion through taxes, salaries, material and service purchases, and more.
Palo Verde is the largest single commercial taxpayer in Arizona.
The plant has 2,500 full-time employees. An additional 900 to 1,000 contractors are employed twice yearly during month-long planned refueling and maintenance outages.
Palo Verde purchases $130 million in products and services from more than 1,200 Arizona businesses every year.
Clean Air & Environment
Palo Verde is the nation’s largest source of clean-air energy.
As the nation’s only nuclear plant not located on a body of water, every year, Palo Verde recycles more than 20 billion gallons of wastewater from surrounding municipalities to cool the plant.
All the spent fuel from the plant is stored on-site. For the projected 40 year life-span of the power plant, 100% of the retired cells are stored in an area the size of a football field.
At a time when climate change is wreaking havoc on local agriculture, businesses, and families, we’re excited to have Palo Verde Generating Station in our backyard, providing the Southwest with a reliable, carbon-free means to fuel our homes and businesses into the future.
