The next time you’re caught speeding down an Arizona highway, the enforcement camera that snaps your license plate may be solar-powered.

According to Scottsdale-based Redflex Traffic Solutions Inc., which has been in operation for two decades tagging speeders across the nation (and across the world), the potential for developing a photo- enforcement camera equipped with a solar panel that would allow it to operate even during a power failure is right around the corner.

Redflex currently uses solar power to provide auxiliary power to some of its mobile monitoring units, or vans, which mean increased fuel efficiency and longer monitoring times with reduced emissions.

Of course, no one at Redflex is willing to talk about the project, or the solar engineering firm Redflex is working with to make the solar-powered enforcement cameras a viable proposition. This is apparently because Redflex officials would rather wait until the technology is a sure thing, and deployed as part of Redflex’s contract with the state, before making any announcements.

It seems like a sensible approach, especially as the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) is still in budget discussions that make funding the solar photo-enforcement cameras somewhat uncertain.

The impetus behind solar photo-enforcement, at least in Arizona, is the larger number of people who have been injured or killed on the state’s highways, namely U.S. 93 and a section of Interstate 40 between Wickenburg and Las Vegas. The rising number of accidents and traffic fatalities in metro Tucson are also a concern for the DPS.

Redflex’s contract with DPS provides the company $28.75 out of every $165 paid for speeding tickets. Out of that $28.75, Redflex pays for camera installation and maintenance. The contract is said to provide about $20 million a year in revenues to Redflex, which has contracts with various Arizona cities and towns, including Peoria, Tempe and Chandler.

Its competitor, Scottsdale-based American Traffic Solutions (ATS), has contracts with such cities as Mesa, Scottsdale and Glendale. An ATS spokesman refused to discuss whether the company is similarly researching solar-powered photo-enforcement, though CEO James Tuton did reveal in a March interview that the company was going to start manufacturing solar-powered camera systems.

Redflex officials, when consulted, said the company is merely exploring the solar option and would likely not move forward until it knows who the ultimate partner would be and how the technology would benefit both the company and its contractor, Arizona DPS. In fact, Redflex has used solar panels on some of its fixed-mount photo-enforcement cameras in the past.

Report indicate that Tempe-based Arizona Solar Concepts is working with the company to design and possible assemble the cameras, though Solar Concepts officials were equally as tight-lipped. However, it is known that Solar Concepts has contracted a portion of the design phase to Arizona State University’s student-run Solar Engineering Group.

The use of solar power would allow more photo-enforcement cameras to be installed, and their operation would reportedly cost less than cameras running off the grid. In addition, in the event of a power failure, the cameras could continue to monitor essential highways for dangerous behavior.

Arizona’s photo-enforcement procedures were approved in July of 2008 with a mandate to install 100 cameras, both fixed and portable. After January protests and legislative action, the program was suspended with 36 fixed and 42 mobile cameras. It has since been restarted, with two additional cameras installed, according to DPS spokesperson Bart Graves.