The campus of Lawrenceville School, a centuries-old boarding school in Lawrenceville, N.J., is now home to 6.1 megawatts of solar panels from SolarWorld. The photovoltaic system, ground-mounted on 30 acres of school-owned farm land, is believed to be the largest installed at a United States primary or secondary school.

There has not been agreement as to whether solar photovoltaic (PV) power makes sense from an economic point of view. According to a new study from Stanford University specifically looking at the economics, grid parity has now been achieved for large commercial-scale installations.

The U.S. Solar Market Insight: Q1 2012 report, released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA®) and GTM Research, finds that growth in solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the United States is sustaining its strong pace from 2011.

Onset, a leading supplier of data loggers, has announced the installation of a new 225-kW, roof-mounted solar photovoltaic system at the company’s Cape Cod, Mass., headquarters facility. The 936-panel system is expected to produce nearly 50 percent of the company’s annual electricity usage.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), about three in four residential buildings have physical restrictions to going solar. However, things are changing, and in the last several years or so, “shared solar” has started to take root in many states across the country. What exactly is shared solar?

The Catholic University of America (CUA) dedicated the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) panel system in Washington, D.C., featuring more than 2,600 solar panels designed to generate in excess of 830,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year, including a canopy of 714 panels over more than 70 parking spaces.

Jurupa Unified School District and Chevron Energy Solutions have announced the completion of a 2.7 megawatt solar and energy efficiency program expected to reduce energy costs at 27 school sites and save the district more than $34 million.

Kings County and Chevron Energy Solutions announced completion of a solar and energy efficiency program expected to reduce energy costs at 23 sites within the county. This work marks the third phase of a sustainability program that Kings County embarked on with Chevron Energy Solutions in 2004.

NRG will help the new Santa Clara Stadium become the first professional football stadium to open with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and the first professional sports venue to achieve net zero energy performance in California during 49ers home games.

The Solar Center reported that California residents have now installed more than 1 gigawatt — over 1,066 megawatts — of solar power using rebates from the $2.4 billion California Solar Initiative, launched in 2007 as a way to jump-start the industry.