Solar Energy
Solar Energy in Indiana
Start with the DOE EERE resource on solar energy for a nice overview of solar power. From the discussion below, solar power on a large scale may not be a great solution for the southern Indiana area.
Solar Power in southern Indiana: I used the solar polar calculator at www.pvwatts.org supported by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to find the mean solar flux per month for our area in Southern Indiana onto a south-facing array.  This calculator takes the latitude into account as well as hourly variations in weather conditions.

The plot to the right shows the mean solar flux for Indianapolis (middle of the state) and Evansville (at the southern border of the state) per month. By comparison I also show the solar flux for Phoenix, AZ. To set the scale, the solar flux on the equator on a sunny day at noon (Sun directly overhead) is 1 kilowatt per square meter.

The plot to the left uses the mean solar flux for our area to find the mean average power from a 30,000 square foot photovoltaic array. I chose this array size to match the power needs of the building where I work - about 40 kW overall ranging from 20 kW to a maximum of about 120 kW depending on time of day. I assume two efficiencies for the solar array: 11% and 17%. I also assume a DC to AC de-rate factor of 77%. 30,000 sq ft is a little over half the area of a football field (360 feet by 160 feet or about 1.3 acres.
El Dorado Solar Plant (VIDEO): The El Dorado Solar Plant is near Boulder City, NV just outside of Las Vegas. This video gives you a real feel for what is physically and technically involved in putting together and running a 10 MW solar facility.  The video takes several minutes but it is worthwhile.  A reporter (who is intelligent enough to ask crisp and brief questions) is interviewing a plant engineer (who knows what he is talking about and does it well).

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. This is a 10 MW plant - with an array size of 88 - acres
2.  It is located near a 480 MW gas-fired generator so it has available the nearby infrastructure to link up to the grid
3.  It is also located in a region of the state where the electrical power transmission infrastructure is rich (Hoover Dam not far away)
4.  The site is very flat - in the desert - no vegetation - all of which is important.  Even with that they do soil treatment to mitigate dusting of the panels
5.  The site averages 330 sunny days a year !!!

In other words, the conditions for putting up a solar facility are as 'good as it gets' and as you will see from the video - it is impressive.  But the output is 10 MW. This is pretty modest.  The output of the the nearby Hoover Dam is 2 GW - a factor of 200 over El Derado