Two photovoltaic power plants will be built in California with 800 megawatts peak generating capacity — roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant, and more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today, showing that that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale.

In practice, the plant will operate of full power for fewer hours of the year than a coal or nuclear plant would, so they will produce a third or less as much total electricity.