BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Cleantech America, a privately held, two-year-old San Francisco company, has launched a project to build the world's largest solar power farm in the San Joaquin Valley, California.

The 80-megawatt farm will be completed in 2011, with its spread of solar panels covering as much as 640 acres, 17 times the size of U.S. largest solar farm now.

The project, which will generate enough power for nearly 21,000 homes, will be sold to the Kings River Conservation District, a public agency that purchases power for 12 cities and two counties in California's Central Valley.

Cleantech hopes that a solar farm of this size will be an industry-wide tipping point for energy providers, and will drive the cost of solar energy downward.

The biggest solar farm now in operation is the 4.6-megawatt Springerville Generating Station near Tucson, Ariz.

(Agencies)