Just in time for Al Gore’s major renewable energy challenge Florida’s Public Service Commission has “unanimously and enthusiastically” approved plans to build USA’s largest commercial solar-power plant (so far, we hope). Two other facilities also got the green light by the committee and are due to go online around 2009.

SunPower has been chosen to construct the three solar plants in the state of Florida. Howard Wenger, senior vice president, global business units for SunPower, said that “these agreements confirm the growing trend in the U.S. to build solar power plants at a scale rivaling those in market-leading countries such as Germany and Spain.”

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Will your house be solar-powered by “rose-tinted” windows in the future? At least that’s what professor John Bell from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia hopes.

He has worked with Dyesol, a Canberra-based company, trying to develop affordable transparent solar cells that act as both windows and energy generators in houses or commercial buildings.

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