Buy Photo Officials flip a ceremonial switch during the dedication of the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm near Desert Center on Monday. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)Buy Photo 
 
 Riverside County is now home to the world's largest solar power plant. 
 
 Interior Secretary Sally Jewell joined state officials near Desert Center on Monday to commission the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight solar project, which generates enough electricity to power 160,000 average California homes. Desert Sunlight received a federal loan guarantee of nearly $1.5 billion, and Jewell called the project's completion an example of the loan guarantee program's tremendous importance. 
 
 "When you are stepping out with new technology, when you are trying something that has been untested before, a loan guarantee program from an organization like the Department of Energy is what provides you, as a lender, that certainty that you can step up and support the project," Jewell told The Desert Sun. 
 
 Conservative lawmakers have derided the loan guarantee program, arguing that it's wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Critics have pointed to the program's $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, a Fremont-based solar panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy in 2011. 
 
 But the Department of Energy reported last year that it expects to make a profit of $5 billion to $6 billion from the program. The department funded five traditional, large-scale solar farms, and Desert Sunlight marks the last of those projects to go online. 
 
 "They're all rock-solid, money is good, living up to every kind of condition we put in the loan documents in terms of performance, in terms of commercial operation," Peter Davidson, executive director of the Department of Energy's loan programs office, said in an interview last week. 
 
 The loan guarantee program did more than fund five solar photovoltaic projects, Davidson added: It helped launch the large-scale solar industry. In 2009, there were no traditional solar farms in the United States larger than 100 megawatts. Now, 17 such projects have been financed, according to a Department of Energy report released Monday. 
 
 Solar panels "existed before as a technology, but that technology hadn't been deployed at a large scale," Davidson said. "Once we've done that, the government steps aside to let the private markets take over." 
 
 Desert Sunlight employed an average of 440 people during more than three years of construction, and it now has about 15 full-time employees. Money provided by the project's owners — as part of an agreement negotiated with Riverside County — is also being used to fund $400,000 in improvements to the community center in nearby Desert Center. 
 
 "The debate's over — we're going to be moving to more renewable energy," Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit said. "We are ideally situated, here in eastern Riverside County, to host this kind of development in the future." 
 
 Desert Sunlight is the world's largest solar power plant, although only by a hair. 
 
 The Topaz solar project in San Luis Obispo County — which, like Desert Sunlight, was built by Arizona-based First Solar — also has a capacity of 550 megawatts. But the desert has more abundant sunlight than San Luis Obispo County, so Desert Sunlight will actually generate more electricity than Topaz, said Georges Antoun, First Solar's chief operating officer. 
 
 "It's a beautiful sun here, year-round," he said. 
 
 California as a whole has installed more renewable energy than any other state, noted David Hochschild, a member of the California Energy Commission. 
 
 "There were a lot of skeptics who actually didn't believe that renewables could scale, that this cost reduction could happen, that we could introduce it to the grid," Hochschild said. "They've been proven wrong." 
 
 There's little doubt that California will get more electricity from clean energy in the coming years. The state's three major utilities are on track to meet or exceed a 33 percent renewable energy mandate by 2020, and Gov. Jerry Brown is calling for policymakers to increase that target to 50 percent by 2030. 
 
 Buy Photo U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, right, and Georges Antoun, COO of First Solar, tour the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight Solar Farm near Desert Center on Monday. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun) 
 
 It's an open question, though, whether future solar projects will be anywhere near as big as Desert Sunlight. 
 
 Developers have been gravitating toward smaller solar farms, which are easier to build and usually have a smaller impact on species and ecosystems in California's pristine deserts. Desert Sunlight spans 3,800 acres near Joshua Tree National Park, and it faced vehement opposition from environmental activists during its permitting process. 
 
 If legislators adopt a 50 percent renewable energy mandate, it could incentivize massive projects like Desert Sunlight. But Antoun said he'd be surprised to see many more projects 550 megawatts or larger, in California or elsewhere. 
 
 "Can we create a bigger project? Of course," he said. "But it all has to do with how much appetite (states) have for how much land to utilize, and to be committed for 20-25 years." 
 
 Utilities faced with renewable energy mandates, Antoun said, will more likely turn to projects in the 100-megawatt range, located closer to energy consumers. Projects built near cities require far less transmission infrastructure, which is expensive to build and poses a host of environmental concerns. 
 
 First Solar is already building the 750-megawatt McCoy solar plant near Blythe, but it's not clear that the project will ever get to that size. Southern California Edison has agreed to buy the first 250 megawatts, but NextEra isn't likely to build more if it can't find other buyers. 
 
 Still, state and federal officials are confident more solar farms like Desert Sunlight are possible. Desert Sunlight was built on federal land, and Bureau of Land Management director Neil Kornze said Monday the project could set an example the world over. 
 
 "When I look out at this view behind me, I see not just a great opportunity for Riverside County, which it is, or for California. I see the deserts of the Middle East. I see the deserts of Africa, or Asia, or South America," Kornze said. "We've built the largest solar facility in the world, right here. It can be done elsewhere." 
 
 Sammy Roth covers energy for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at sammy.roth@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4622 and @Sammy_Roth. 
 
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 RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — One of the nation's largest solar projects was dedicated Monday in the Riverside County desert, as California rushes to expand its use of green power to meet the state's renewable energy requirements. 
 
 The dedication of the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm comes about a month after Gov. Jerry Brown called on the state to increase renewable electricity use to 50 percent by 2030, up from the current goal of 33 percent by 2020. 
 
 "Solar projects like Desert Sunlight are helping create American jobs, develop domestic renewable energy and cut carbon pollution," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement. "I applaud the project proponents for their vision and entrepreneurial spirit to build this solar project, and commend Gov. Brown for implementing policies that take action on climate change and help move our nation toward a renewable energy future." 
 
 The plant, which uses photovoltaic panels, is expected to produce enough power for about 160,000 homes. Constructed on about 4,000 acres of federal land, it is owned by NextEra Energy Resources, GE Energy Financial Services and Sumitomo Corporation of America. First Solar is building and operating the plant, the California Energy Commission said. 
 
 Nationwide, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved 52 large renewable energy projects since 2009, including 29 solar plants. 
 
 Desert Sunlight benefited from about $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees. The Energy Department said in a report Monday that the agency provided $4.6 billion in loan guarantees to support five large photovoltaic solar projects in the Southwest, at a time when developers were struggling to obtain financing. 
 
 The steady expansion of solar power in desert areas is testing the balance between wilderness conservation and the pursuit of green energy. 
 
 The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert, which opened last year, has faced criticism from environmentalists after scores of dead birds were found on the site, some with melted feathers. That plant uses a technology known as solar-thermal, in which computer-controlled mirrors reflect sunlight to boilers atop 459-foot towers. The suspected causes of bird deaths include collisions with mirrors and scorching. 
 
 According to the agency, the Bureau of Land Management worked with Desert Sunlight and other groups to reduce the project's size from a proposed 19,000 acres. The agency said it required Desert Sunlight to provide funds for more than 7,500 acres of habitat for desert tortoises and other sensitive species to help offset the effect on the environment.
– Planet Earth's biggest solar power plant opened for business yesterday right here on American soil, the Desert Sun reports, with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on-site in California's Riverside County to mark the opening of the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm. The plant, which boasts 550 megawatts of power and is spread across some 4,000 acres of federal land, can support 160,000 homes. The plant should help California reach a goal of running on 33% renewable energy by 2020; Gov. Jerry Brown has called for the figure to reach 50% by 2050, the AP reports. It appears to be a success for the Obama administration, which took heat over the $535 million Solyndra debacle. But now, says a county official, "the debate's over—we're going to be moving to more renewable energy." Desert Sunlight, built on a $1.5 billion federal loan guarantee, is among five major federally funded solar farms through which the US expects to bring in a $5 billion to $6 billion profit. "They're all rock-solid, money is good, living up to every kind of condition we put in the loan documents in terms of performance, in terms of commercial operation," says a Department of Energy rep.