Phoenix mayor, Phil Gordon has outlined a new strategy to make Phoenix the first carbon-neutral city in the country.

Based on a 17-point plan that has been developed in collaboration with Arizona State University's Global Institute of Sustainability, the carbon-neutral goal will require about $1 billion in water, public-transit and renewable energy investments. It is likely that a large chunk of that funding will come from the stimulus funds set aside for energy projects.

While the plan does require a wide variety of clean energy options, it will be solar that gets the lion's share on this one.

According to the plan, solar panels and solar hot water heaters will be installed on existing city buildings. They will also be required for all new facilities, and homeowners and businesses will get incentives for solar too. Though as of yet, we don't know what those incentives will be.

Next month, the future green city will solicit proposals from the private sector to build the Valley's first solar-power plant on 1,200 acres at the city's landfill.

Pushing this kind of solar development in Arizona makes an enormous amount of sense. As it is, the state gets an average of about 300 sunny days a year. That's 300 days of free fuel that doesn't have to be mined or transported by rail or rig.

While I'm sure there will be a number of solar providers racing to work with the city on this one, it should be noted that First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) is headquartered in Phoenix. I suspect that the thin-film leader will be involved with this thing somehow.

Jeff