Bring on the sun: Our Matt Nauman reports that despite the turbulent economy — or perhaps because of it — solar is doing just fine in California, thank you very much.

Applications for rebates under the state's Million Solar Roofs programs reached record levels in the last five months of 2008, including more than 1,250 applications in December.

"It's really been booming," said Damon Franz, an energy analyst with the California Public Utilities Commission. "It's somewhat surprising as we expected the economic downtown might have some dampening effect."

Instead, fears that the U.S. Congress wouldn't extend the federal solar tax credit past the end of 2008 spurred activity in the early fall as consumers and installers rushed to get project completed by the end of the year. Then, once Congress extended the tax credit for eight years and lifted a $2,000 cap in favor of a 30 percent credit, consumers jumped in for rebates in order to be first in line to get their systems (and their credit) after Jan. 1, 2009