Here it is — your daily moment of solar power.

President Obama last night addressed the nation from the Oval Office, vowing to “make BP pay for the damage their company has caused” and “do whatever’s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.” While the President mainly focused on the crisis at hand, he did allude to longer-term policy aims:

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we’ve talked and talked about the need to end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked — not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor.

The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight.  Countries like China are investing in clean energy jobs and industries that should be right here in America. Each day, we send nearly $1 billion of our wealth to foreign countries for their oil. And today, as we look to the Gulf, we see an entire way of life being threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude.

UPDATE: BP has agreed to put $20 billion in escrow for a spill cleanup fund.

Yet another reason to be thankful we live in the land of abundant and reliable electricity: “Factories in Bangladesh have been asked to stop work in the evenings so there is enough electricity for people to watch World Cup football on TV,” via The Oil Drum, via BBC news.

In Oregon solar installation news, utilities like PGE and Pacific Power are gearing up to start accepting applications on July 1 for the state’s new feed-in tariff. Participating homeowners with systems up to 10 kilowatt (kW) in size could be paid as much as $0.65 per kilowatt-hour for the electricity they generate. This payment makes rooftop solar panels a no-brainer, provided you’ve got a decent roof.

California and Nevada make great solar-powered union. Sempra Generation, solar project developer, today announced today the first eight megawatt (MW) block of solar panels is delivering clean, renewable power to PG&E, a California utility. Located in Boulder City, Nevada, the Copper Mountain Solar installation will be 48-MW in size, when complete.

In Delaware solar installation news, a 10-MW solar park is slated for construction in Dover. Go solar, Delaware!

Further north, in Massachusetts, Con Edison Development aims to install a 2-MW solar panel installation at the New Bedford Business Park in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, via SouthCoastToday.com. If built, the solar power installation would be among the largest in New England.

Finally, we’ll finish with more news about solar panels in Massachusetts. Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ:ESLR), a solar-panel maker based in Marlboro, Mass., will this week announce its newest line of string-ribbon panels in Paris, France, via Boston.com.

That’s all for today — thanks for reading. Please feel free to post any other noteworthy news stories below. We’ll see you back here on Friday.