World's largest solar farm in Arizona!

13 May 2014: World's largest solar farm in Arizona!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-s-largest-solar-array-set-to-crank-out-290-megawatts-of-sunshine-power/

290 Megawatts capacity, twice the size of Central Park, NYC.
To quote the article:
"Global climate change is here, and it’s only going to get worse, according to a White House report released on Tuesday. To combat rising sea levels and blistering summers, the Obama administration has been pushing for clean, renewable energy sources that cut down on carbon emissions. Now one of its projects is poised to pan out: Agua Caliente, the largest photovoltaic solar power facility in the world, was completed last week in Arizona.
The plant comprises more than five million solar panels that span the equivalent of two Central Parks in the desert between Yuma and Phoenix. It generates 290 megawatts of power—enough electricity to fuel 230,000 homes in neighboring California at peak capacity."

See the link to find out more. 

Solar farm over disused mine

30 Sept 2011: This story is cheering, although it makes me sad, reminding me of the decision by RBC recently not to do any solar installations on any RBC buildings, not even a tiny house sized pilot project.
http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/3605-germany-covers-old-pit-mine-with-worlds-largest-so
In the district of Senftenberg, East Germany, an old mine with contaminated land has been made useful by being turned into a 78 megawatt solar farm. This has just been extended and is now increased to a total of 166 megawatts!
  Looking at Senftenberg on Googlemaps, it's notable how grim the landscape was when the former regime just allowed mines to expand and pollute. These vastly exceed the size of the town. There are also many lakes, some of which resemble flooded quarries or gravel pits. Some of this land would be very difficult to return to food growing because of the contamination, so a conversion to solar power station is a good and environmentally friendly use.
   We don't have areas quite as bad as this in Rushcliffe, although there are parts of Cotgrave country park (ex-mine) that are still closed off to the public. That area would be a good one for an outdoor solar farm.

Solar farms

25 September 2011: I have just returned from a holiday in Northern Italy. I noticed a number of solar farms, and stopped to photograph this one.
  Each of these freestanding systems have 48 panels on them, yielding, I estimate about 10-11 kW each. The arrays are able to swivel to face the Sun, and they can also Tilt, based on the time of year and the clock setting.
  Although, in this photo, they are shading each other at sunrise and sunset (this is almost always the problem with all installations), the mechanisms ensure that for the majority of the day, the units can work at optimum generating capacity, benefitting from the clearer skies and the higher sun angles of Northern Italy. This will mean that the 'bell curve' of generation will pick up rapidly in the morning, and have a flat top throughout the day. Even on cloudy days, like the one in the photograph, an optimum angle means that the panel will still pick up a decent amount of power from the bright sky, by pointing in the brightest direction.
  The number of these was uncountable. They stretched far into the distance, in 3 directions from where I was standing. Many hundreds.
  There must be very little vandalism in Italy. Many of these solar farms are on the edge of the road with no fences or boundaries of the sort we see around the mobile phone masts on Wilford Hill. They wouldn't last a week here with the risks of vandalism, if they were unfenced. But if installed on safe land, these represent a very determined approach to power generation, that will deliver renewable power in sufficiently substantial quantities to support large communities.