The Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy pursues a bold vision: A thriving, resilient Arizona by 2050—advancing collaboration, innovation, and shared opportunity to realize a carbon-neutral economy that strengthens communities, enhances economic opportunity, and supports enduring prosperity.
We support cross-sector efforts that draw on Arizona’s regional strengths—including world-class solar resources, a growing manufacturing base, leading research institutions, and strong community leadership—to enhance long-term prosperity and resilience.
AzCaNE convenes Arizona’s public, private, Tribal, academic, and community collaborators, providing transparent analysis that helps assess and identify opportunities that contribute to long-term prosperity and resilience.
AzCaNE takes an “all of the above” approach to achieving a low-carbon and sustainable future, recognizing that no single solution will achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
The center coordinates its efforts across multiple low-carbon strategies, including low-carbon intensity hydrogen, bioresources, transportation electrification, carbon capture, infrastructure resilience and more.
AzCaNE brings together leading experts in bioenergy, biomass management and sustainable technologies to transform organic bioresources into renewable fuels and valuable products.
By converting agricultural residue, dairy biogas and other bioresources into low-carbon energy and usable products, AzCaNE is advancing circular economy strategies that support a carbon-neutral future.
Extensive reservoirs of oil, gas and natural carbon dioxide in the Southwest make it an ideal place to explore carbon capture, utilization and storage.
The area benefits from existing CO2 pipelines and geological formations, facilitating enhanced oil recovery and deep brine storage; these support large-scale storage solutions and address technical challenges.
As the world navigates rising CO2 emissions, low-carbon-intensity hydrogen stands out as a promising solution for enhancing energy security.
AzCaNE balances near-term solutions, like upgrading industrial equipment to cut emissions, with longer-term investments like low-carbon-intensity hydrogen infrastructure.
No single technology or pathway can meet the scale or complexity of our ongoing energy, resource and carbon management challenges.
AzCaNE works across disciplines to assess and advance diverse strategies—from long-duration energy storage and electrification to sustainable land use, circular economy and beyond—to build a holistic path toward a carbon-neutral economy in Arizona.
Supplying all heavy-duty trucking and 5% of Arizona’s electricity with low-carbon-intensity hydrogen in 2050 would consume around 15,500 to 34,250 acre-feet of water each year. This equals roughly 0.5 % of today’s statewide demand, or 4 to 9 gallons per kilogram of hydrogen.
Sustainable supply is influenced by groundwater drawdowns, scarce reclaimed water, complex surface-water rights and similar factors. AzCaNE convenes utilities, tribal nations, industry and regulators to navigate these trade-offs and ensure future hydrogen projects align with Arizona’s long-term water resilience.
March 9, 2026 South32’s Hermosa project moved closer to full development after the U.S. Forest Service released its Final Environmental Impact Statement and Draft Record of Decision, indicating support for development on National Forest land. The action would allow key infrastructure, including access roads, a dry-stack tailings facility and part of a 138 kV power line, while advancing the Southern Arizona mine toward final federal approval.programs, which allow utilities to draw on home batteries during peak demand to support grid reliability as electricity use grows across the state.
March 5, 2026 Pattern Energy’s SunZia project reached a major milestone as Vestas completed installation of 242 wind turbines in New Mexico for the largest clean energy project in the United States. The 3.5 GW wind farm, paired with a 550-mile transmission line to Arizona, is expected to deliver up to 3,000 MW of power and move closer to commercial operation later this year.
March 2, 2026 Utah-based Zanskar has discovered a commercially viable blind geothermal system in the Nevada desert, marking the first major U.S. find of its kind in decades. The 100-megawatt site, known as “The Big Blind,” could eventually supply steady baseload power for a small city or large energy users, while highlighting a new path for expanding geothermal energy across the Southwest.
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