New US Solar Projects to Produce 17 Gigawatts, with Help From East Bay Companies

The United States’ large-scale photovoltaic project pipeline will reach seventeen gigawatts this month and climb even higher in coming months, according to market research group SolarBuzz. That’s the equivalent of about 26 new coal-fired power plants or 19 new nuclear power plants to be completed between now and 2015. The figure does not include solar thermal power, where mirrors are used to reflect solar energy to a central boiler, which then uses steam to produce energy. Oakland company SolarMillennium is building a one-gigawatt solar thermal plant in the California desert that will be the world’s largest when it’s completed in early 2012.