The United States Air Force Academy says it foray into solar power has been more successful than it anticipated. After a year of operation, the Academy says it’s received 7 and a half percent more power than anticipated from its 6-megawatt solar array project.

Solar energy is being deployed on a massive scale by the most iconic brands and best-managed companies in the U.S. in order to help lower operating costs and increase profits. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Vote Solar Initiative (Vote Solar) today unveiled a report naming the companies using solar in their facilities in the U.S., ranked by cumulative solar energy capacity.

U.S. solar-panel installations more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier led by demand in California, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Envision Solar International announced on Thursday that one of its Tracking Solar Trees®, which includes a SunCharge™ electric vehicle charging station as its trunk, will be going up at GM’s Milford Proving Ground.

The solar-power business is expanding quickly in the U.S., helping lift the cloud that has surrounded the industry since the demise of Solyndra LLC a year ago. But the growth isn't coming from U.S. solar-panel manufacturing, despite the money and rhetoric devoted to the industry by the Obama administration. Instead, it is in installations of largely foreign-made panels, whose falling price has made solar more competitive with other forms of power.

SunPower Corp. (SPWR) has signed a power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric or PG&E for delivery of the 100-megawatt (AC) Henrietta Solar Project in Kings County, Calif. According to the company, the project is likely to create nearly 200 jobs during construction and inject $72.7 million into the local economy.

GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®) today released U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2nd Quarter 2012. The report finds that U.S. solar achieved its second-best quarter in history, having installed 742 megawatts of solar power, and the best quarter on record for the utility market segment.

A previously approved plan that will allow many city-owned facilities to be partly powered by the sun saw a new partner added to the contract Tuesday night.

Jurupa Unified School District and Chevron Energy Solutions today 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. The project added solar photovoltaic panels mounted on parking and shade structures at nine campuses. Coupled with comprehensive energy education curriculum content, the transformative program is designed to inspire students to learn about – and experience – clean energy technologies and concepts.

The U.S. Army is currently in the experimental phase of an alternative energy program that could make the military a little less reliant on fossil fuels. Out of the laboratory and into the field, the Army’s program SAGE includes innovative technologies, such as solar panels, and other measures that are gradually being introduced to various base camps to test their efficiency limits and personnel capacities.