Reposted from CNET: Credit to: Martin LaMonica November 9, 2011 4:00 AM PST Original URL: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-57320569-54/operating-a-30-megawatt-solar-farm-from-one-pc/ During a road trip to the Southwest, CNET visits the 30-megawatt San Luis Solar Plant, which will have only two people managing a giant field of 110,000 high-efficiency solar panels. MOSCA, Colo.--Within a few days, Nick Thiel will take control of about 110,000 high-end solar panels pumping 30 megawatts of power onto the grid from a former potato and carrot farm. Thiel is operations manager of the San Luis Solar Ranch, a 300-acre facility in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, a high-desert area considered ideal for solar power generation. I visited the solar ranch during a week-long expedition of energy-related locations in New Mexico and southern Colorado organized by the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources. The SunPower solar panels, which cover 220 acres themselves, are...