China makes a lot of solar panels, but so does America. Or at least, it will, once GE's new thin-film panel factory opens in Colorado.

The factory marks GE's new, large bet on solar, and states across the country competed to have the factory sited within their borders. Colorado had an empty factory that fit the bill and will snatch up a few hundred jobs as a result.

The factory itself will open next year, at which point it will start spitting out a solar panel every 10 seconds. The panels will be more efficient than most thin-film models, GE says, and will require less infrastructure to install. We can do this solar thing.