The biggest solar power plant in the country will be built in West Sacramento, after a Spanish solar development company chose the city for its U.S. headquarters, the company confirmed Monday. West Sacramento and its port, where the plant will be located, beat Oakland to grab the new national headquarters of Otras Producciones de Energia Fotovoltaico. The company develops solar power plants and manufactures the tracking systems solar panels are mounted on. The company's subsidiary, OPDE U.S. Corp., officially began operating on March 1 in a roughly 70,000-square-foot building at 1430 Enterprise Blvd. in West Sacramento. But OPDE isn't coming here alone. It's bringing along two more subsi

U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui launched a collaboration Friday in an effort to make Sacramento the nation's clean-tech capital. The impetus: $127.5 million the U.S. Department of Energy awarded to Sacramento Municipal Utility District and local partners last fall to install a regional smart electric grid system. The grid collects electricity use information from generation to consumption and makes that available via the Internet. Local green-sector businesses, organizations, academics and government agencies now must team up to figure out how to use the federal funding as venture capital to stimulate economic growth through clean-tech initiatives and green energy projects, said Matsui, who repre