Under a proposal approved last week, a privately owned solar power company called Recurrent Energy will build a brand new solar plant to sell the energy to San Francisco at a cost of about $2 million annually. The Sunset Solar Plant will be the largest one ever constructed in California and it is hoped that the plant’s construction and operation will increase jobs while decreasing greenhouse gases.

There was some controversy, as some members of the board of city supervisors felt that San Francisco was being shortchanged in the deal with Recurrent Energy. However, their attempts at negotiating a better deal with the solar company were unsuccessful.

These types of solar panels generate energy from light, not heat, so even San Francisco’s almost constant blanket of fog will not prevent energy production.