Before beginning this newest project, REC still has some loose ends to tie up. REC Solar will complete a single-axis tracker-system at the same facility by the end of this month, according to Solar Industry Magazine. A single-axis tracker, which gives the solar panels one axis of rotation to follow the sun throughout the day, can help boost electricity output.

This newest installation that REC will soon begin working on will be added to the nearly completed PV array, and together they are expected to pump out 5.2 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually. That is enough solar-generated electricity to power over 500 average homes in the United States for a full calendar year.

These Arizona solar electric installations are part of the plan outlined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in mid April of this year to add solar energy systems to its facilities in Texas, California, Nevada and Arizona. And in early January, the Department of Veterans Affairs contracted the Hudson Valley solar installation firm SunWize Technologies to upgrade current solar energy systems at a number of hospitals across the country.

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The majority of homeless people in New Bedford  are military veterans. And for the last nine years, WHVH has been building safe, affordable and permanent housing specifically for those homeless military veterans. The group’s latest project? The Sean Brooke House: a 19-apartment, fully-furnished housing complex in New Bedford, which is now powered by a 38-kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system.

The $4 million housing project was completed last month and is named after Sean Brooke, a former U.S. military serviceman who served a 14-month tour in Iraq as an Army medic. Brooke returned to his military base safely after service, but was killed by a drunk driver on the island of Oahu, Hawaii in 2005.

The house  — that sits on a site that was once a vacant mill — has been in the making for the last six years. Its solar energy system is capable of generating 50,400 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity each year and reduce the yearly electricity costs of the housing structure by over $10,000 compared to what the bill would have been without the solar energy system.

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The 455-kilowatt (kW) system rests on 133,000 square-feet of roof space atop the five-story structure. It is made up of nearly 2,000 235-watt solar panels made by Sharp at its manufacturing plant in Memphis, Tennessee.

A $6 million grant allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) made the project possible — as did the cooperative efforts of a number of different companies and government entities.

The U.S General Services Administration (GSA) and the VA chose Ray Angelini Inc. (RAI), a commercial solar design firm in New Jersey, to build the project. Founded in 2004, RAI’s solar division has completed systems in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Most notably, RAI completed the single-roof solar power structure atop the Atlantic City Convention Center, which at the time was the largest such project in the country.

Ray Angelini, President of the company that bears his name, had the following to say about the completed project:

“We are extremely proud to have this signature Pennsylvania photovoltaic project–one of the largest in the State–in our portfolio. This project is a direct result of the GSA’s commitment to green design and construction and the ARRA.”

Back in April of this year, the GSA announced that it had secured $4 billion from the ARRA in order to invest in energy efficiency for federal buildings across the country. The VA’s Philadelphia solar panel installation was bankrolled under that same allocation.

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Adding to these initial solar installations, the VA last week unveiled a $20.2 million broader plan for solar panel installations at 18 medical centers in eight states and American Samoa, that together would total 3,020 kilowatts (kW) of solar energy. Depending on the structure of each facility, the solar energy systems will be ground mounted, sitting on rooftops or atop carports.

While we don’t yet know which solar installation company will be doing each system, we do know that REC solar, based in San Luis Obispo, is still included in the plan.

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Based in Kingston-Ulster, New York, SunWize will work on solar power systems at Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities in the following locations: Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Phoenix, Arizona; Sacramento and Vallejo, California; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Pago Pago in American Samoa. The multi-million dollar contract is part of a presidential order requiring federal agencies to, by the end of 2015, increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by three percent per year or by 30 percent in total. Under the contract, SunWize will update systems ranging in size from 50 kilowatts (kWs) to 400 kWs.

SunWize Technologies is part of Hudson Valley’s Solar Energy Consortium, a Kingston, NY-based non-profit organization that facilitates the development and deployment of solar energy technologies.

Here’s further reading on solar energy and Veterans Affairs.

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On November 20, the VA announced plans to install a solar photovoltaic (PV) system at a facility of the West Texas VA Health Care System. And today, via the Phoenix Business Journal, we learned that VA hospitals in Arizona, California and Nevada will also host solar PV systems over the coming year.

The West Texas system will be installed in the employee parking lot atop 230-foot long car ports, and is expected to produce over 240,000 kWh annually — about 7 percent of the facility’s annual electricity usage. The other solar projects, to be installed at VA facilities in Phoenix and Tucson — as well as at unnamed facilities in California and Nevada — will together amount to 1.7 megawatts of installed solar capacity. That’s enough oomph to power about 3,600 homes. What’s more, the projects are expected to result in the creation of 60 jobs in the three states.

REC Solar, a solar integrator based in San Luis Obispo, CA, was chosen to do the installation. (You can learn more about REC Solar on their GetSolar profile.)

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