It is being highlighted that with precedents such as Ausra changing its business strategy, this is a clear sign of how the credit crisis and the current structure of government incentives are hurting the business for large-scale renewable-energy projects.

Ausra's CEO Bob Fishman said the financing simply isn't there for solar-power plants that rival the size of coal or natural-gas plants.

"What a lot of people thought when they went out and signed 500- or 900-megawatt power purchase agreements was that it was easy to go from a 1-megawatt demo plant to a 900-megawatt project," Fishman told San Jose Mercury News. "That's simply not reality. The finance market will not support it."

"I think it's going to be a brutal, brutal year for solar, and a lot of companies will go out of business," Andrew Beebe, the CEO of Suntech Energy Solutions, which develops solar-power facilities for corporations and utilities, said according to cnet.com. "A lot of mistakes were made. Now is the time of reckoning, and it's going to be ugly."

In another significant development, Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation recently shared that it is to directly invest in solar power plants and solar panels distributed in different California communities. PG&E's president and CEO Peter Darbee said the move represents the first time that PG&E will build and own solar installations. Right now, the utility purchases clean energy from third parties.