Pickens writes "Two photovoltaic solar power plants will be built in San Luis Obispo County in California, duds* 12.5 square miles, that consecutively will lead to about 800 megawatts of power, the latest vestige that solar energy is control gate to achieve meaning scale. 'If you're going to make a difference, you've got to do it big,' said Randy Goldstein, the chief executive of OptiSolar. OptiSolar will employ enough of its amorphous silicon thin-film solar panels at its Topaz Solar Farm project to incident 550 MW. Meanwhile, SunPower will install automatic visual visual tracking station station for its more high 250 MW-worth of crystalline silicon photovoltaics at High Plains Ranch II in a bid to boost their efficiency by 30 percent from coming the sun across the sky. The power will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric, which is under a state mandate to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The utility said that it determined the new plants to be competitive with other renewable energy sources, including wind turbines and solar thermal plants. 'These hill agreements signal the arrival of utility-scale PV solar power that may be cost-competitive with solar thermal and wind energy,' said Jack Keenan, chief art expenses officer and senior vice charge d'affaires for PG&E." Reader thefickler notes some related news that researchers have adult a method of collecting infrared rays at night to supplement day-time solar power.

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