Happy Monday, everyone. We’ll spare you the clever introduction and sarcastic side comments today, and get right to the solar energy news and renewable energy news:

Rosemont Copper, a miner with operations in Arizona, may install solar panels at its headquarters in Tucson, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The company will spend half a million dollars testing solar prototypes on its property, a few miles south of the site of a proposed open pit mine. Depending on how plans turn out, the mining company’s could be the largest commercial solar installation in the Tucson area.

With the first of several LADWP rate hikes on its way, some Los Angeles residents are turning to solar electric systems as a way to shield themselves from rising prices, reports the L.A. Times: “‘I call it my green hedge on energy inflation,’ says Ray Wyman Jr., 54, of his decision to install a 4.2-kilowatt photovoltaic solar system on the roof of his 2,000-square-foot home in Orange in June 2009.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday ran a superb story profiling the challenges facing large commercial installations in Pennsylvania. Not surprisingly, many of the potential snags center on solar project financing. The state’s solar renewable energy credit (SREC) market — to take one example — is still in its infancy. This, apparently, can give banks the jitters. The bottom line is an optimistic one, however: “Despite all the impediments, we’re just going to push for this.”

The Honolulu Star Bulletin profiles solar open houses, which provide a great opportunity for interested individuals to see a home solar power system in action.

Egypt will host a facility that will process the raw materials used to make solar panels, via The Africa Report. An unnamed Dutch company will own and operate the plant, which is expected to produce 3,000 metric tons of polysilicon a year.

Known best for its petroleum assets and know how, Chevron is planning to install 7,700 solar panels near Bakersfield, California, via Reuters. The solar installation will power the pumps and pipelines at the company’s Kern River oil field facility, with any excess electricity returning to the grid under a net-metering agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).

That’s all for today. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.