Tempe will install the final solar panel at its South Water Treatment Plant this Friday. It will flip the switch for a partnership with the city, SRP and panel installer Solar City. Tempe Vice Mayor Onnie Shekerjian said this is just the start for other solar projects around the city.

“We’ve got some other really neat solar projects were going to be looking at in the future. In order for us to think of ourselves as being on the cutting edge, and we like to think of ourselves that way as a city,” Shekerjian said. 

About 3,000 solar panels will generate more than 1.6 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year, supplying 15 percent of the plant’s power needs. A similar project is in the works to put solar panels on Tempe’s police and courts building and another waste water treatment plant.