The Topaz Solar Farm

A 800 MEGA-WATT solar farm is in the making!

This is a landmark event in US Energy History -- A company called OptiSolar, has entered into a 550-megawatt power agreement with California's PG&E (utility company) to deliver an average of 1,100,000 megawatt-hours annually of clean, renewable electricity from the Topaz Solar Farm. The project is expected to begin power delivery as early as 2011 and be fully operational by 2013.

The solar farm will be located in San Luis Obispo County, California (A)

Optisolar uses the relatively low-cost, thin-film Photovoltaic technology to make their Solar panels. They use amorphous silicon, instead of Crystalline Silicon.

The other major Solar farm working with PG&E is a 250 Megawatt Farm from the company SunPower which will be located in San Luis Obispo County’s California Valley . This farm is expected to begin power delivery in 2010 and be fully operational in 2012. SunPower's technology is proprietary crystalline PV solar cells, which can generate up to 50 percent more power than conventional crystalline cells.

2 Questions I have :

1. What is the Efficiency rating for these Panels
2. What is the Cost per Kilowatt for Optisolars' and SunPower's Panels