SolarWorld just announced that its plant in Hillsboro, the largest solar manufacturing plant in the country, has hired its 1,000th worker. SolarWorld came to the town of Hillsboro, which lies 15 miles west of Portland, three years ago, setting up shop in an old computer chip factory. Bob Beisner, managing director and vice president of [...]

The Tucson International Airport Board of Directors has decided to license 50 acres of its land to Tucson Electric Power Co. for the next 20 years. Analysts expect the photovoltaic system to be fully functional by the end of next year. The reason for the project, according to its planners at TEP, is a drive [...]

The Philadelphia Eagles are taking a giant green step in the right direction by converting their Lincoln Financial Field to one that will allow the stadium to generate all its own electricity from renewable sources. The plans are to install solar panels, wind turbines and an alternative-fuels power plant will save over $60 million on [...]

Wells Fargo today announced a joint program through which Wells Fargo will invest over $100 million by the end of 2011 to fund the development of solar photovoltaic power projects throughout the U.S. by GCL-Poly subsidiary GCL Solar Energy Inc. Financing provided by Wells Fargo will enable GCL Solar to cost-effectively provide a clean and [...]

The Obama administration has approved a thousand-megawatt solar project on federal land in southern California, the largest solar project ever planned on U.S. public lands. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has stated that the $6 billion Blythe Solar Power Project, to be built in the Mojave Desert near Blythe, Calif., as the start of a boom [...]

The White House has announced concrete plans to install solar panels. The solar panels are to be installed by spring 2011, and they will help to heat water and supply some of the electricity. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush both used solar panels during presidential tenures. Carter heated water for West Wing [...]

California’s state energy commission approved another massive solar energy project this week. This new project will be big – the 1,000 MW Blythe Solar Power Project is said to be the world’s largest concentrated solar power facility. The new facility will be built in eastern Riverside County. The Blythe project, according to developer Solar Millennium, [...]

According to a recent press release, the Kittitas County Board of Adjustment has approved a permit for Teanaway Solar Reserve, 75-MW project capable of powering 45,000 homes. Located 90 miles east of Seattle, the Teanaway Solar Reserve will be among one of the largest photovoltaic solar facilities in the world. The project is expected to [...]

Brightsource Energy Inc., an Oakland, California-based developer of utility-scale solar thermal power plants, announced that the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) siting committee recommended approval of what will be the world’s largest solar energy project. The project, called the Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System (ISEGS), consists of a three-plant, 392-megawatt solar electric generating system located in [...]

Masdar, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investment company, will join two European companies, Total and Abengoa Solar, in spending $600 million on a new solar plant in the desert 75 miles from the city. With a capacity when it comes onstream in two years’ time of 100 megawatts, “Shams 1″ will make only a [...]