Pocono Raceway, which hosts two Nascar Sprint Cup races each year, plans to become the world’s largest sports facility to be powered by solar energy.

The Fort Irwin base in the Mojave Desert will get 500 megawatts of solar power in a phased project using both photovoltaics and solar concentrators.

Evergreen Solar Inc. shares tumbled on Friday, a day after it reported a wider second-quarter loss, driven by falling selling prices for silicon wafers used in solar panels.

Shares of First Solar Inc. tumbled in premarket trading on Friday a day after the nation’s largest solar panel maker said its second-quarter profit surged, but disappointed investors with a rebate program that analysts say will hurt earnings results in the second half of the year.

The latest issue of the Monthly Energy Review by the U.S. Energy Information Administration reveals that production of renewable energy for the first third of 2009 (January 1 – April 30) was six percent higher compared to the same time period in 2008. In April 2009 alone, renewable energy sources accounted for 11.1 percent of domestic energy production and exceeded the amount contributed by nuclear power, according to analysis done by the Sun Day Campaign

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that Department of Energy (DOE) will provide up to US $30 billion in loan guarantees, depending on the applications and market conditions, for renewable energy projects. Another $750 million will support several billion dollars more in loan guarantees for projects that increase the reliability, efficiency and security of the nation’s transmission system.