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PHOENIX — Businesses and utilities in Arizona are reluctant to move solar energy proposals beyond the concept phase until they know whether a federal subsidy for such projects will remain in place.

Congressional leaders can't agree on how to pay for a subsidy that would give anyone who installed or built a solar-energy system a 30 percent rebate of the cost in the form of a tax credit. The tax credit is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31.

"It has definitely been a challenge," said Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, D.C. "Our view is that there is bipartisan support (for extending it), but it does seem like we are really stuck on the structure of how to do it."

One project in potential peril is the Solana Generating Station, an Arizona Public Service Co. project near Gila Bend that would be capable of serving 70,000 homes or more. Utility executives have made it clear that they will kill the plans if the tax credit isn't extended.

APS already has signed a contract for the 280-megawatt plant.

"We're in a full-court press," said APS President Don Brandt, who has discussed the tax credit with most of Arizona's congressional delegation and several representatives from other states.

Solana isn't the only big solar-energy proposal on the horizon.

Salt River Project, a Phoenix-area utility, and APS have teamed up with several other regional utilities to contract for a 250-megawatt, solar-thermal plant in Arizona or Nevada.

Other projects in the state are at risk, as well.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., wants a huge solar plant built at Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. It would be modeled after a $100 million, 14-megawatt installation at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base.

"I think it is important not to think of Solana as a single, marquee project but a toe in the water, a foreshadowing of what could be in the future," Giffords said. "There is no state in the U.S. that has more to gain from a thriving solar industry than Arizona."

Michael Ahearn, CEO of Tempe-based First Solar Inc., a solar panel company that gets nearly all its sales revenue from foreign nations, has said repeatedly that the company eventually can compete stateside without subsidies. But he also said an extension of the tax credit "would obviously be helpful."

In addition, APS and SRP say they are reviewing several applications from Phoenix-area businesses for the installation of large rooftop solar panels.

But those businesses, the utilities say, are likely to hold off without the tax-credit extension.