Southern California Edison entered a 20 year contract with Stirling Engine Systems that paved the way for the two largest solar plants in the world; one in the Mohave Dessert, and one in the Imperial Valley. (The Imperial Valley plant will sell its electricity to San-Diego Gas & Electric.) The two plants combined will produce 2 GW of power, comparable to the Hoover Dam, and enough to power over one million homes. Southern California's peak energy loads correlate well with the sun according to a company spokesman.

10,000 giant mirrors will track the sun across the Southern-California sky. Each of the mirrors concentrates the sun's heat to a collector that runs a Stirling Engine. The plant should come online in 2009. California utilities are under a state mandate to receive 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010.

Thin film technology is a promising new solar-energy technology that has the potential of making photovoltaics a cost-effective alternative to conventional electricity production. California-based Nanosolar is one of three major players in the emerging thin-film solar technology.

Stan and Iris Ovshinsky of Uni-Solar, a thin film manufacturer, are interviewed and the impressive factory is toured. The factory can produce "nine miles" of thin film in a single run according to Stan Ovshinsky. United Solar Ovonic was the company that President Bush toured a couple years ago.