Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) President & CEO Rhone Resch made a strong show of support for the Arizona solar industry today in an op-ed for the Arizona Daily Star, co-written with Bret Fanshaw, an associate with advocacy group Environment Arizona. The opinion piece does double duty as a defense of SEIA’s push for strong climate and energy legislation–we can assume it’s cap and trade in question here, though the piece does not specify–and as a pro-Arizona solar rally. The state’s indisputably excellent solar resource has made it an ideal locus for solar power plants. Recently, however, development has been slowed or stalled by a heated debate over the long-term environmental impact of solar in the desert, especially as the most efficient solar energy plants use solar thermal technologies. And water is certainly at a premium.

I’ve discussed the desert solar battle on this blog before, so I won’t go into it too much now. Suffice it to say that both sides make some very good points, but the solar industry feels that a loss of momentum now in some of its most promising markets–Arizona and California–would be a tough blow from which to recover. The op-ed puts SEIA’s industry-leading expertise and authority clearly on the side of the developers:

Solar is thriving in 2010, due in large part to policies at the state and federal level. The Arizona Corporation Commission’s Renewable Energy Standard, federal solar investment tax credits, pro-solar stimulus bill provisions, the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts to streamline solar development and state tax credits for solar manufacturing all have the industry poised for robust growth, both in Arizona and across the country.

Resch and Fanshaw call out the cavalry in support of solar development: economic growth, in particular job creation; the ability to develop solar while respecting and preserving natural habitat; the need to begin the shift away from our dependence on foreign oil; and the big gun, climate change.

Environment America and the Solar Energy Industries Association have been fighting for a robust climate and energy bill because of what it could mean, not only for Arizona’s economy and environment, but for our country and world. It is important that we continue to move toward a future that provides good jobs and clean energy, while protecting America’s wildlife and habitat. With utility-scale solar power, we can do all three.

But let’s not forget about distributed generation while we’re mired down in this utility-scale struggle: rooftop solar panel arrays like home solar systems and small commercial solar installations are an important piece of the energy puzzle. In Arizona, major utilities APS and SRP both offer strong incentives to help lower the cost of a solar installation. The federal investment tax credit, which was in fact extended on Resch’s watch, will offset a further 30 percent of the cost of solar. Arizona solar installations on a small scale are in many ways a no-brainer: excellent ROI, clean energy, great use of the state’s most plentiful natural resource, and no need to do environmental feasibility studies before proceeding.

Just to prove that small-scale solar energy systems are viable even in less hospitable climes, check out the (relatively) live feed of Resch’s solar home: a 6.05 kw rooftop solar panel installation on his family’s home in Washington, DC. I think this is called “walking the walk”.