November 18, 2005 - Two Southern California utility companies are planning to build two large sun-powered power plants to form the world’s most ambitious solar-energy project. Larger-than-normal dishes combined with a 200-year-old engine design will be situated across two solar farms, one with the capacity to generate 500 megawatts of electricity in the Mojave Desert and a 300-megawatt plant in Imperial Valley, Calif.

Instead of using panels of photovoltaic cells, 40-foot-tall curved dishes will focus solar energy on Stirling engines, each producing up to 25 kilowatts. The dishes are being tested, and 20,000 will be spread across 4,500 acres of desert and 12,000 dishes will cover 2,000 acres at a separate site. Construction will begin on the larger site in 2008. At the end of 2004, the United States only had 397-megawatt solar-energy capacity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The National Research Council report Renewable Power Pathways: A Review of the U.S. Department of Energy's Renewable Energy Programs makes recommendations on how the government can help encourage renewable energy technologies in a competitive market.

• Renewable Power Pathways: A Review of the U.S. Department of Energy's Renewable Energy Programs (2000)

• U.S. Department of Energy