The Davidson County Photovoltaic Solar Plant will be one of the largest photovoltaic solar farms in the United States when completed in 2011. The 21.5-megawatt power station is located in the heart of North Carolina, near the community of Linwood. SunEdison will build the array of photovoltaic panels, and Duke Energy plans to buy all the output from the solar farm. The solar farm is to be located on North Carolina Highway 47, off New Jersey Church Road.

Davidson County Board of Commissioners agreed to subsidize the Photovoltaic Solar Plant project. This included $1.8 million to go into land grading and multiple cash payments beginning in July 2009, and going through 2011. Another $127 million has been raised from investors. The solar farm will create 80 jobs during construction, and three jobs will be needed in order to maintain the power facility. In addition, SunEdison will receive an annual refund of certain taxes pertaining to their various constructions due to modified legislation to include solar energy projects. SunEdison had been looking at an almost ten times larger 2,400-acre (9.7 km²) piece of land off of Interstate 85 near Lexington, but the owner declined to sell the property. However the company had already spent $134,000 researching to see if that site would work.

One of the driving forces behind the construction of this solar farm, and SunEdison's presence in North Carolina altogether, is due to a state law passed in 2007 that requires public utilities such as Duke Energy to obtain a minimum of 12.5% of their power from renewable energy by 2021. The farm has a rating of 21.5 megawatts, which translates to 18 megawatts of peak AC power. Every year that the solar farm is in use, it will offset 32 million pounds of carbon dioxide. SunEdison claims that once complete, the power plant will generate enough energy to power more than 2,600 homes.

The Mesquite Solar 1 is a photovoltaic solar power plant to be built in Arlington, Maricopa County, Arizona, owned by Sempra Generation. Phase 1 will have a nameplate capacity of 150 megawatts. The project has enough land for at least 600 MW.

Mesquite Solar 1 will use 800,000 solar panels bought from Suntech Power. The EPC contractor is Zachry Holdings. Construction is expected to begin in 2011 and be completed in 2013.Mesquite 1 is projected to generate more than 350 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually (an average power of 40 MW).

Phase 1 will cost about $600 million. SempraGeneration has chosen Suntech Power Holdings and Zachry Holdings to design and construct its Mesquite Solar 1 project. When completed in late 2012, the Arizona plant will produce 150MW of electricity and sell it to Pacific Gas & Electric under a 20-year power purchase agreement. The site is located 30 miles outside of Suntech’s new Goodyear manufacturing facility, which will provide panels for the project. U.S. EPC provider Zachry will manage the installation of the 800,000 panels during the first phase.

The California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR) is a proposed 250 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic power plant, to be built by SunPower in the Carrizo Plain, northeast of California Valley. Commenting on this project and a nearby 550 MW project announced at the same time, Daniel Kammen, the director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at University of California, Berkeley, said "This scale is ten times larger than what was being talked about awhile ago".

On August 14, 2008, Pacific Gas and Electric announced an agreement to buy all the power from the power plant. A Conditional Use Permit application for the project was filed with the County of San Luis Obispo Planning and Building Department on January 14, 2009. On November 30, 2010, NRG Energy announced that it would buy CVSR from SunPower for "up to $450 million". SunPower is seeking a loan guarantee from the federal government to cover the remainder of the $1 billion construction cost.

The California Valley Solar Ranch project proposes to utilize 1,966 acres (796 ha) of a 4,365-acre (1,766 ha) site of former grazing land for solar power generation, the project would utilize high-efficiency, crystalline PV panels designed and manufactured by SunPower, formerly a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor. The project will include up to 88,000 solar tracking devices to hold PV panels that will track the sun across the sky. The project would deliver approximately 550 gigawatt-hours (GW·h) annually of renewable energy and will have a capacity of 250 MW. While the plant would only have a capacity factor of 25%, its power would be generated during the middle of the day, when demand for electricity — and price — is much higher than at night.

The Carrizo Plain is home to 13 species listed as endangered either by the state or federal government, including the San Joaquin Kit Fox, Giant Kangaroo Rat, and the California Condor. SunPower has been working with the community to protect local wildlife habitat and migration patterns, and reduce the amount of traffic in the area during construction. The company recently announced a plan to create a reserve for Giant Kangaroo Rat in order to address concerns about habitat destruction.

If approved, the California Valley Solar Ranch project is expected to begin power delivery in 2011, and be fully operational by 2013. California utilities are mandated to get 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010.

The AV Solar Ranch One is a proposed 2,093 acre solar photovoltaic power project in the Antelope Valley which received unanimous Board of Supervisors approval on November 25, 2010, despite objections from defense contractor Northrop Grumman. The development will include 2.25 miles (3.62 km) of transmission lines and is "expected to provide clean energy to about 75,000 homes". According to First Solar, the project will create 400 jobs over a three year period and provide $50 million in local taxes.

When fully operational, the 230MW AV Solar Ranch One project will generate enough clean solar energy to serve the needs of about 75,000 average homes per year, displacing approximately 140,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year—the equivalent of taking about 30,000 cars off the road.

Topaz Photovoltaic Solar Farm is a proposed 550 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic power plant, to be built by First Solar, Inc. in the Carrizo Plain, northwest of California Valley at a cost of over $1 billion. Pacific Gas and Electric announced an agreement to buy all the power from the solar power plant. Commenting on this project and a nearby 250 MW project announced at the same time, Daniel Kammen, the director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at University of California, Berkeley, said "This scale is ten times larger than what was being talked about awhile ago".

OptiSolar, the instigator of the project, had optioned 9.5 square miles (25 km²) of ranchland, In November 2009, First Solar announced that it had purchased options to an additional 640 acres (260 ha) from Ausra's canceled Carrizo Energy Solar Farm. First Solar would reconfigure the project to minimize the use of land covered by the Williamson Act.

The Topaz Photovoltaic Solar Farm project would utilize thin-film PV panels designed and manufactured by First Solar. The project would deliver approximately 1,100 gigawatt-hours (GW·h) annually of renewable energy. The plant's power would be generated during the middle of the day, when demand for electricity — and price — is much higher than at night. The project is expected to begin construction in 2011 and be fully operational by 2014. California utilities are mandated to get 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010.

In late October 2010 the San Luis Obispo Department Planning and Building released a Draft Environmental Impact report for which is now accepting public comment.

Alamosa photovoltaic solar power plant, is a 8.22 MWp photovoltaic power plant located in San Luis Valley, Colorado, USA. The power plant was developed by SunEdison, sells all output to Xcel Energy, and was completed in December 2007. The solar power plant occupies 83 acres (34 ha) of land, and provided enough power to supply 1400 homes in 2008. Alamosa photovoltaic power plant is the largest producer of photovoltaic power in the United States in 2008. Colorado Xcel customers pay approximately 2% more for electricity to subsidize renewable energy projects. The plant has received some criticism, saying that the amount of land used is large in comparison to the amount of power generated.

The Solana Solar Power Plant planned to begin operation in 2013, to be located near Gila Bend, Arizona, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Phoenix. It will be built and operated by the Spanish company Abengoa Solar, and will have a total capacity of 280 megawatts (MW), which is enough to power 70,000 homes while avoiding around 475,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Its name is the Spanish term for "sunny spot".

Arizona Public Service (APS) has contracted to purchase 100% of the power output generated from Solana Solar Power Plant, to meet the Arizona Corporation Commission's (ACC) mandate that the state's regulated utilities provide 15% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025. APS will pay about 14 ¢/kW·h. The Solana Solar Power Plant, originally planned to open in 2011, will cost an estimated $2 billion. On July 3, 2010, US President Barack Obama announced that the US Department of Energy had conditionally committed to offering a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to support construction of the plant.

The Solana Solar Power Plant will employ a proprietary concentrating solar power (CSP) trough technology developed by Abengoa, and will cover an area of 1,900 acres (770 ha). Construction is expected to create about 1,500 construction jobs; once completed, the plant will employ 85 full-time workers. Solar thermal plants use substantially more water for cooling than other thermal generating technologies. Nevertheless, the Sierra Club supports the Solana plant, because it will be built on private land, and use "75 to 85 percent less water than the current agricultural use."

The Nellis Solar Power Plant is located within Nellis Air Force Base in Clark County, Nevada, on the northeast side of Las Vegas. The Nellis solar energy system will generate in excess of 25 million kilowatt-hours (kW·h) of electricity annually and supply more than 25 percent of the power used at the base. The system was inaugurated in a ceremony on December 17, 2007, with Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons activating full operation of the 14 megawatt (MW) array.^[2][3]

The Nellis Solar Power Plant coccupying 140 acres (57 ha) of land leased from the Air Force at the western edge of the base, this ground-mounted solar system employs an advanced sun tracking system, designed and deployed by SunPower. The system contains approximately 70,000 solar panels, and the peak power generation capacity of the plant is approximately 13 MW AC. This means the ratio of average to peak output, or capacity factor, of this plant is around 22%.

The Nellis Solar Power Plant energy generated will support more than 12,000 military and civilians at Nellis who are responsible for Air Force advanced combat training, tactics development and operational testing. Construction began on April 23, 2007, and operation of the first 5 MW began on October 12, 2007.

Renewable portfolio standard

In 1997 Nevada passed a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) as part of their 1997 Electric Restructuring Legislation (AB 366) It required any electric providers in the state to acquire actual renewable electric generation or purchase renewable energy credits so that each utility had 1 percent of total consumption in renewables. However, on June 8, 2001, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn signed SB 372, at the time the country's most aggressive renewable portfolio standard. The law requires that 15 percent of all electricity generated in Nevada be derived from new renewables by the year 2013.

The 2001 revision to the RPS keeps in place Nevada's commitment to expand solar energy resources by requiring that at least 5 percent of the renewable energy projects must generate electricity from solar energy.

In June 2005, the Nevada legislature passed a bill during a special legislative session that modified the Nevada RPS (Assembly Bill 03). The bill extends the deadline and raised the requirements of the RPS to 20 percent of sales by 2015

Expansion of Nellis Solar Power Plant

An extension of the plant, which could generate another 18 megawatts of power, has been proposed. The Air Force has not yet decided whether to have the extension built, and its potential cost and size have not been determined, but the military sees considerable operational advantages in solar power.

Nellis Solar Power Plant
Country	United States
Locale	Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada
Coordinates	36°15′30″N 115°03′10″W / 36.25833°N 115.05278°W / 36.25833; -115.05278 / 36.25833; -115.05278
Commission date	December 17, 2007
Owner(s)	Nellis Air Force Base
Solar farm information
Type	Flat-panel PV
Photovoltaic modules	70,000
Land area	140 acres (0.6 km2)
Power generation information
Installed capacity	14 MW

The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center is a photovoltaic solar power facility in Arcadia, DeSoto County, Florida owned by Florida Power & Light (FPL). President Barack Obama attended the plant's commissioning on October 27, 2009. With a nameplate capacity of 25 megawatts (MW) DC, it is the largest solar photovoltaic plant in the USA as of 2009^[update]. It produces an estimated 42,000 megawatt-hours (MW·h) of electricity per year (an average output of about 4.8 MW).

The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center cost $150 million to construct. The photovoltaic solar power plant consists of over 90,000 SunPower solar panels with single-axis trackers on 180 acres (70 ha).

DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center
Country	United States
Locale	Arcadia, DeSoto County, Florida
Coordinates	27°19′N 81°48′W / 27.317°N 81.8°W / 27.317; -81.8Coordinates / 27.317; -81.8
Status	Operational
Commission date	October 27, 2009 (October 27, 2009)
Construction cost	$150 million
Owner(s)	Florida Power & Light
Solar farm information
Type	Flat-panel PV
Photovoltaic modules	90,000 SunPower solar panels
Power generation information
Installed capacity	25 MW
Capacity factor	19%
Annual generation	42 GW·h