One of the foremost providers of solar energy in the world, SunEdison, has formed a partnership with AT&T to activate a rooftop solar panel installation located in San Diego. On Aug. 24, executives from both companies, accompanied by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, literally flipped the switch to turn on the installation.

The photovoltaic panel system in San Diego can create about 296 kilowatts of energy at a given time, and while SunEdison will construct and maintain future project sites, as well as monitor the San Diego solar installation, AT&T will purchase the power created by the panels to offset their grid demand.

This partnership is part of an initiative by AT&T to expand its solar power projects, and the two companies will soon begin work on five other projects throughout California. The other sites, located in Santa Ana, Commerce, West Sacramento, Mojave (where solar company Abengoa is building a solar plant), and Dunnigan, should be completed by the middle of 2011, and, combined with the San Diego solar installation, will provide about 2 megawatts (MW) of power to the state's residents.

The installation is expected to operate for at least 20 years, and during that time, is expected to generate about 7.7 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, or enough to power 720 homes for a year. In terms of the environmental impact, about 8 million pounds of carbon are estimated to be avoided; an amount equal to removing 800 cars from the road entirely.

Once all six sites are operational and providing 2 MW of electricity to the state, they will put out about 3.2 million kWh of power per year, and avoid the generation of 62 million pounds of carbon over 20 years of operation.