From the national pastime to brewing beer, solar is making an impact across the board. That impact is continuing to grow in 2011 and beyond. Last week’s solar news included some big solar deals and progress on some of the largest solar plants ever envisioned.

Ontario-based Canadian Solar scored a home run last week when it announced that it began sponsoring the New York Yankees. The company will soon have in-stadium signage, Canadian Solar said. It’s not the first Major League Baseball sponsorship, the company already sponsors the San Francisco Giants.

Big Al Brewing’s installation of a solar hot water heating system at its microbrewery, means those suds you’re sipping at the ballpark—at least in Seattle—could be sun-brewed. The solar thermal system will be used to heat water for the brewing process, drastically reducing the Brewery’s use of natural gas in an inefficient boiler system.

Maybe you could call this a solar bunt. Total’s awaited $1.3 billion purchase of 60 percent of SunPower Corp. stock took it on the chin two days after Total made the offer. However, more than 52 percent of shareholders offered up their stock for Total, which paid an overvalued $23.25 for each share. The purchase, however, drove the stock price down by nearly 20 percent.

There were also some significant solar home runs last week. The U.S. solar industry is knocking it out of the park. Last week, a new SEIA, GTM Research report found that the amount of solar that will be installed in the U.S. in 2011 will reach 1.8 gigawatts, more than double the 887 megawatts installed in 2010. The growth is expected to continue, raising international interest in the U.S. solar market.

Meanwhile, two of the world’s largest solar plants under construction took to the diamond. Solar Trust of America, for instance, broke ground on the world's biggest solar power plant, the 1,000 megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project in California. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), among others.

Another large-scale solar project, the 392-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System project, moved forward as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a Notice to Proceed. The agency had to reevaluate the project’s impact on federally listed threatened desert tortoises after more were discovered at the site than were expected. With the notice, construction on Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the project was allowed to resume.

Elsewhere, General Electric continued to expand its reach in the clean energy industries. Last week, it partnered with Gehrlicher Solar, an international solar energy developer headquartered in Germany. The companies plan to pursue development of utility-scale projects throughout the world. Their first joint project is a 1-megawatt, community-owned solar park in Aschheim, Germany, that will be completed in August.

Google Inc. (Nasdaq-GS: GOOG) is searching to further boost its interests in renewable energy. Last week it invested $280 million into a SolarCity fund to support residential installations throughout the company’s service area. Google has now invested $680 million in renewables, and SolarCity has now attracted $1.28 billion in project financing.

It wasn’t as big a week for legislative issues, but in seeking to reduce the soft costs of solar, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed a bill into law last week that will reduce the cost of solar permitting fees to $500 for residential or $1,000 for small business installations.

Pictured: A solar installation at Coors' Field. Image courtesy of Independent Power Systems.