In Arizona’s Pinal County, Johnson Utilities plans to use solar energy to run 100 percent of its wastewater treatment plant processes.

It will be the first entity in the state to use solar energy in such a way, and according to owner George Johnson represents a move away from fossil fuels, whose supply is controlled by countries largely hostile to America.

It is also Johnson’s second solar project, the first – on a nearby site – using solar power to run a well and potable water treatment plant that delivers water to about 10,000 homes. Johnson Utilities serves about 25,000 customers in Pinal County.

The proposed solar facility, comprising more than 5,400 solar panels on six acres of land surrounding Johnson’s wastewater plant, will cost about $10 million and provide wastewater treatment to residents of Parkside at Anthem at Merrill Ranch, a planned community north of Florence built by Pulte Homes. The project is expected to be completed sometime this summer.

Johnson Utilities is also planning to build a solar array to run a second wastewater treatment plant in the fall, and a spokesman has said that any energy savings will be passed on to customers.

Pinal County isn’t the only one switching to solar power for its water treatment plants. In Pima County, about 75 miles northwest, a solar array will soon power one of three major metropolitan wastewater treatment facilities and mark a major step toward that county’s goal of providing 15 percent of its power needs from alternative energy by 2025. And in Maricopa County, another 75 miles north, a stimulus package of $2.8 million will help the Santa Cruz Water Company convert to clean, green solar power.

The moves represent a growing trend among municipalities to use otherwise unvested land to generate electricity through solar energy, a process advanced by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which has provided at least $2 billion in stimulus funds to advance President Barack Obama’s goal of 25 percent of America’s energy coming from renewable sources by 2025, and a reduction in carbon emissions of 14 percent by 2020.

It’s a good use of otherwise wasted land, and a good way to simultaneously use stimulus funds and take America off dependence on foreign fuels. In fact, such innovations may move the nation even closer to Obama’s goals before the target date, and deliver reductions which meet Kyoto’s mandate, even though the U.S. has never signed on to that global alliance.