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The Imperial County Board of Supervisors has given the green light to Folsom’s 8minutenergy Renewables to build a series of large-scale solar projects that will result in the world’s largest solar farm. The decision was supported by environmental organizations Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, which has been working in partnership with 8minutenergy Renewables on the project. Among the primary concerns is a program that protects the habitat of the burrowing owl, a local threatened species.

"By working with the Sierra Club and the rest of the environmental community to provide additional stewardship for the burrowing owl they have demonstrated that they will go the extra mile," said Bill Corcoran, Western Regional Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in a press release.

The project will be constructed in three phases — Mount Signal Solar Farm and Calexico Solar Farms I & II — ultimately producing 600 megawatts of solar energy to more than 200,000 California households.

"We appreciate the approval of our solar projects by the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, and are proud to work proactively with the Sierra Club to protect and enhance biological resources in the Imperial Valley," said Tom Buttgenbach, President of 8minutenergy Renewables. "This is a strong example of how solar energy developers can work proactively and collaboratively with the local community and government, as well as with environmental and labor leaders to create a win-win-win for everyone involved."

The project is expected to create nearly 700 construction jobs over three years, and close to 100 permanent jobs in the region.

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A field of solar panels.

Solar energy systems supplier Solfocus has committed to building a 450-megawatt power plant near the border of Mexico and California. A joint operation between San Jose-based Solfocus, Mexican real estate developer Grupo Musa and Synergy Technologies in America, the plant will be built in 50-megawatt tranches. As announced in a press release, construction will begin on the first tranche later this year, with operations scheduled to begin sometime in 2013.

“The project is in direct alignment with the Mexico and U.S. bilateral clean energy agenda. The countries share a common goal of achieving strong economic growth and energy security while addressing climate change and increasing the reliability of energy infrastructure,” said Lic. David Munoz, Director General of the Baja California State Commission of Energy in the release. “Mexico has been successful with wind energy, and now this large solar project will support our energy infrastructure and economic development efforts in the very near future.”

Mexico has historically lagged behind America in terms of solar energy. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, there is currently more solar electricity generated in the city of San Diego than all of Mexico combined.

"The country wants to be sustainable," said Nancy Hartsoch, vice president of marketing and business development for SolFocus. "They currently don't have the best environmental footprint with their energy…But certainly, I think the desire is there.”

Given the extreme sunlight that falls in Northern Mexico, experts see this new plant as a step in the right direction.

"It's ideal," said Daniel Kammen, a UC Berkeley professor working on renewable energy projects and policy at the World Bank for the past year. "And there's a lot of open land. So you would think there would be more solar."

With the ultimate goal of being able to see solar energy back to California utilities, Solfocus also has designs on building a nearby factory to supply a bulk of the equipment for the project.

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Everything really is coming up solar these days. Just this week we reported on the boom in solar usage across the country, hitting record numbers in 2011. We also checked in on a locally based program retrofitting homes in East L.A. with solar panels. Now a philanthropic effort initiative looks to donate solar equipment to “local schools, health clinics, and nongovernmental organizations and building the infrastructure to sustain the investment, including a network of supportive local partners, local installers, and system component providers.”

Manufacturer Trina Solar Limited is driving the effort, with actor and part-time racecar driver Patrick Dempsey serving as a spokesperson for the project.

“Solar power can be a practical solution to the critical issues facing the nation’s population and environment,” Dempsey said in a press release. “Solar is ready today to help local communities, as well as to create jobs and new businesses.

The project is an extension of a video Dempsey made last year called “Plug Me In, Light Me Up," which highlighted the benefits of solar energy. It was also last year when Dempsey’s racing team partnered with Trina to provide solar equipment to “Victory Junction,” a North Carolina summer camp for chronically ill children. The company also retooled several Habitat For Humanity homes in Texas with solar upgrades. 

Lauren Sommer for NPR

Despite signs pointing to what could have been a grim year, 2011 was booming for American solar industries. According to a new GTM Research, solar panel installations more than doubled last year, with 1,855 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity going up as opposed to a mere 887 megawatts in 2010. That’s 109 percent growth, for those keeping score at home.

"In 2011, the market demonstrated why the U.S. is becoming a center of attention for global solar," said Shayle Kann, the managing director of the GTM Research’s solar practice in a press release. “It was the first year with meaningful volumes of large-scale PV installations.”

“We went from an industry that was installing megawatts a year to an industry that’s installing gigawatts,” adds Rhone Resch, president and chief executive officer of the Solar Energy Industries Association to the New York Times. “If we can attract the investment, the opportunity to grow is really limitless simply because demand for energy, and clean energy, is just so great.”

Much of the growth is being attributed to falling prices on the panels themselves, driven by companies opting for cheaper components out of China, who’ve been accused of selling solar hardware below cost. But what was good for growth was often bad for business, such as manufacturers like First Solar, whose tumbling stock has been at least partly attributed to losing business to foreign (and less expensive) suppliers.

While U.S. solar panel usage is expected to continue throughout 2012, a recent trade complaint made against China looks to impose “significant tariffs” on their solar imports in hopes of offsetting any financial advantages, with the potential of slowing overall growth.

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Apple, the company that makes a large number of your (um, our) cell phones and computers, is in need of a little good news. The digital giant has taken a big PR hit of late, with reports of questionable employee conditions in their Chinese factories resulting in this week’s ABC “Nightline” expose.

Yesterday, Apple took to the company website to announce something decidedly more upbeat: details of their massive new data center in Maiden, North Carolina that will be primarily powered with renewable energy. CNET reports that the 500,000-square-foot facility will cost a cool $1 billion, and has already earned LEED's highest award – a Platinum certification – for what Apple has planned.

“We know of no other data center of comparable size that has achieved this level of LEED certification,” says Apple’s website. “Apple’s goal is to run the Maiden facility with high percentage renewable energy mix, and we have major projects under way to achieve this — including building the nation’s largest end user-owned solar array and building the largest nonutility fuel cell installation in the United States.” 

According to Venturebeat, after the addition of the solar array later this year, the 20-megawatt building will ultimately churn out 42 million kWh of clean energy annually.