Here it is, your moment of solar power for this Friday, July 30…

Pocono Raceway, an official NASCAR track, this week inaugurated a brand-new, 3-megawatt solar installation. We’d originally reported on the Pennsylvania solar project about a year ago. But we think Keith Barry of Autopia put it best today:

While we’d gladly spend the day drinking beer outside a rented RV to watch a solar car covered in ads for Home Depot and Coors Light taking turns at a buck fifty, diehards need not worry: it’s only the track that’s gone solar.

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[B]ut don’t expect to see Jeff Gordon dropping DuPont sponsorship for Burt’s Bees any time soon. The solar array was originally a response to deregulation of the local power industry — which track officials estimate would’ve raised the track’s electric bill by 40%.

Did somebody say Tesla Roadster?

In Arizona solar news, Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has OK’d a plan to allow individual homeowners purchase chunks of output from communal solar installations in Arizona. If you’re a TEP customer who doesn’t have either a good roof for solar or sufficient area for a ground-mounted system, the Bright Tucson Community Solar Program may be a useful way to shield yourself from electricity price inflation over the coming years. If you’re a Tucson resident who does have a decent roof for solar panels, however, you’re probably better off with your own installation.

Solyndra, a California solar company that makes cylindrically shaped solar modules, has inked a deal with Southern California Edison (CSE) for an 16.2 megawatt solar project that will cover 18 rooftops across CSE territory.

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), the Tempe, Arizona-based manufacturer of solar thin-film modules, announced quarterly earnings yesterday. Second-quarter profits fell from a year earlier, and shares are down about five percent today. But some analysts, like Daniel Ries with Collins Stewart in New York, are optimistic the company’s pipeline of utility-scale projects will buoy earnings in coming quarters.

For some reason, I can’t help but thinking this is somewhat ironic.

Finally today, Nevada goes solar and gets salty: “Nevada got approval Thursday from the state’s Public Utilities Commission for the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 100-megawatt thermal solar plant estimated to generate 480,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually once completed.”

That’s all for today. Have a relaxing weekend and we’ll see you back here next week.