Arizona awarded a certificate of Environmental Compatibility to the commercial solar installers that will be building the new 150 MW Crossroads Solar Energy Facility. The approval is the final step in the process before work can begin and it comes shortly after the connection of a transmission line from the facility to Arizona Public Services (APS) was approved. The vote this week by the Arizona Corporation Commission was unanimous, as was the vote last November from the APS, a positive sign that government in Arizona is fully behind private industry efforts in solar energy. (more…)

In a recent filing done by Southern California Edison, twenty new PV solar projects came in with lower construction and operation bids than comparable natural gas powered plants. The progressive approach of both government and commercial solar installers in California is showing the rest of the country that solar grid parity is more than just a possibility for the future. It’s a reality that’s happening today. The proposed contracts, which will produce a total of 250 MW, all come in below the price of natural gas. They are expected to generate a total of 567 GWh of electricity. (more…)

Even the United States Marines are making a commitment to renewable energy. Camp Pendleton, a marine base in California, announced this morning that their new solar array is now online and generating electricity for base operations and the Stuart Mesa housing community, making Pendleton one the greenest US armed forces bases on the planet. The array, which is made up of two hundred twenty-five commercial solar panels, generates 1.5 Megawatts of power, about five percent of the base’s total energy requirement. (more…)

It’s been said by many that the only reason solar isn’t the primary power source for homes and businesses in the United States is that it’s too expensive for most to install. Subsidies and tax breaks have helped more companies install commercial solar panels, but many homeowners still find the installation costs too rich for their blood. The US Department of Energy is setting out to change that with their new “Sun Shot” initiative. Modeled after the Kennedy Administration’s “Moon Shot” program, Sun Shot is a multi-year plan designed to lower the costs of solar installation by 75% over the next decade. (more…)

After dealing with a near disastrous energy crisis when natural gas demand became too high for the available supply a few years back, Argentina’s government made the decision to invest national resources into wind technology. One of the projects they invested in was the Vientos de la Patagonia wind farm, which is now fully operational and generating 1.5 MW of electricity with their first wind turbine. The wind farm, located twenty-five miles north of Comodoro Rivadavia, has a total projected capacity of sixty Megawatts, a level Argentineans hope to see realized in the next five years. (more…)

The state of New Mexico begins the year with a new 364 acre solar plant called Cimarron 1 fully operational and generating twenty seven of the thirty Megawatts it will be producing regularly for homes and businesses in Northern New Mexico between Cimarron and Springer. The Cimarron Solar Facility was officially declared commercial at the end of last year, but partners in the project decided to wait until now to issue a joint news release and photos. One of those partners is Ted Turner, whose Vermejo Park Ranch is in the service area that will be covered by the facility. (more…)

Political rhetoric and posturing aside, the only way to achieve the lofty renewable energy goals set by the Obama administration in last week’s State of the Union address is to stimulate development of residential, utility, and commercial solar projects with ongoing rebates, tax incentives, and an effective pay-out program similar to the FITs being offered in European countries. SERC is a program that benefits only businesses with commercial solar panels that generate larger amounts of electricity. To achieve the level of growth necessary for 80% renewable energy by 2035, there needs to be profits available for all solar arrays, not just the big ones. (more…)

Minneapolis based Xcel Energy completed a four-part New Mexico Community Solar project this past week with the installation of a thirteen kilowatt solar array at Leyva Middle School in Carlsbad. The project was initiated back in 2009 to provide education to the public about the benefits of solar generated energy. The other three locations where project installations have been done by Xcel are in Hobbs, Clovis, and Roswell. (more…)

The Blythe Solar Project in the Mojave Desert is in a legal battle over tortoises. What is slated to be the largest solar array in North America has been held up for months by the presence of four tortoises that happen to live somewhere on the six thousand acres chosen for the installation. Environmentalists have been having a field day with it, late night comedians are poking fun at it, and the solution to the problem was finally approved this week. They are moving the tortoises. It’s a good thing some of the best and brightest minds in renewable energy are working on that job. (more…)

The European Union has a target goal of twenty percent renewable energy by 2020. In a report released this week it appears that they will need investment in wind and solar projects to double in 2011 if they have a realistic shot at attaining that goal. In 2009, thirty five billion Euros were spent by governments and private investors to bring renewable energy to Europe. In 2010, that number went up a bit, but it needs to be seventy billion a year by the middle of the decade. (more…)