About 10 miles northeast of downtown San Diego is a surprisingly dark, urban place to stargaze in Mission Trails Regional Park.

The park is shielded from city lights by its vast mountain range.

“We do love that here at the park, through the star parties that we have twice a month,” said Jennifer Morrissey, executive director of the Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation. “People can just, you know, within 10 minutes, be in an area that is almost completely dark, where they can do stargazing with experts in that area.”

This Friday night, space enthusiasts left wanting more after last week’s return of the Artemis II crew from orbiting the moon, can visit Mission Trails for a star party. It’s part of International Dark Sky Week.

The annual event led by DarkSky International has grown into a global movement to explore the celestial night sky and to protect the nighttime environment by curbing light pollution.

“It’s not just about the aesthetics of lighting, although it is nice for us humans just to be able to look up and enjoy the view of the stars,” said Eddie Lain, a dark sky advocate who is part of the Dark Sky San Diego County chapter. “There’s a lot of animals that use it for migration. For thousands of years, humans have used it for navigation and then today, most of the time for appreciation and admiration.”

Mission Trails has been doing its part to protect the night sky, Morrissey said. The park has been turning off the lights in parking lots and around the campground, which can help restore natural light cycles that wildlife need.

Research has shown that artificial lighting hurts many animals and insects. One study found that artificial light at night is a “potent evolutionary trap” and that “insects attracted to stationary artificial light sources die before morning, either through exhaustion or predation.” Another study, published last month, found that artificial lighting is altering how wildlife behave where urban land and wildland meet.

Morrissey said Mission Trails and park volunteers are working to receive a certification through DarkSky International to be recognized as an urban night sky area. In San Diego County, the international organization has certified Borrego Springs, Julian and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park as Dark Sky destinations.

According to Dark Sky San Diego County, other communities in the region are also pursuing an International Dark Sky Community certification, including Fallbrook and Valley Center.

Lain said there are many ways people can help reduce light pollution, including using light only when it is needed, choosing warmer-toned lighting whenever possible and shielding lights to concentrate lighting only where needed.

“Dark sky is not about people not wanting light,” he said. “It’s about doing it responsibly, doing it correctly.”

To stargaze and learn how to create dark skies in your community, here are Dark Sky Week events happening in San Diego County:

• Tuesday, April 14: Borrego’s Dark Sky Week Celebration at the Borrego Springs Library from 2-4 p.m. 
• Friday, April 17: Stars at West Sycamore with San Diego Astronomy Association at Mission Trails at Scripps Ranch at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, April 18: Daytime Solar Telescope and Nighttime Star Party at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, from 9:30 a.m. to noon and from 8-9 p.m. at the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground Campfire Center
• Saturday, April 18: International Dark Sky Week Celebration at Santa Ysabel Nature Center from 2-10 p.m. 

After 18 years of carving out a national niche in the energy infrastructure sector, San Diego-based SOLV Energy became a public company on Feb. 11, closing out its initial public offering and trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

“You’re always a little nervous because you feel like you’re throwing a big party and you don’t know who’s going to show up,” founder and CEO George Hershman said.

It turned out that there was no reason to worry, as investors gobbled up 20.5 million shares of Class A common stock at an IPO price of $25 per share for the company that’s built more than 500 solar and battery energy storage projects across the country — and has constructed, operates and maintains 150 of its own utility-scale solar and battery facilities.

“I think the strength of our investors and the support of our business was strong,” Hershman said during an interview at SOLV Energy’s headquarters in Rancho Bernardo.

The company boasts a market cap of about $5.85 billion and despite stock market jitters caused by the twists and turns with the war in Iran, SOLV Energy stock has more than held its own. It closed the trading day last Friday at $31.66 per share.

“I think investors are looking at the stability of renewables as a real way to hedge against the volatility of fossil fuels” in the wake of the hostilities, Hershman said.

But regardless of what eventually happens near-term in the Middle East, it’s widely accepted that energy demand is poised to take a dramatic leap in the U.S.

Some analysts foresee domestic electricity consumption swelling 25% in the next four years — and continuing to rise well into the next decade — due to a combination of factors, most notably the growth of data centers feeding artificial intelligence.

SOLV Energy executives believe their company is in the right place at the right time.

“We’ve never seen that kind of energy demand in the U.S. so a company like ours is well-positioned to provide that generation and service,” Hershman said. “We’re sitting in a good spot to continue to grow and capture a lot of that market opportunity … I think the investor community understands that energy demand is real.”

Legislation dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that passed on Capitol Hill and was signed into law last summer by President Donald Trump cracked down on the 30% federal tax credit on solar and wind power. But a safe harbor provision for utility-scale projects is in place until July 4,  and those that meet a “begin construction” deadline have as late as 2030 to receive the credit.

“It really didn’t create much of an impact on our business,” Hershman said. “Energy demand is what is driving our market now, not tax incentives.”

Microsoft is in the process of resurrecting one of the nuclear power units at Three Mile Island to provide electricity to fuel its AI data centers. Some tech titans are casting their eyes on natural gas plants for the same reason.

But Hershman says SOLV Energy has an advantage.

“A gas plant is going to take you seven to 10 years to build. A nuclear plant is going to take you a few decades to build, at best,” he said. But a solar and storage plant “can be deployed and be sending megawatt-hours to the grid in 12 to 18 months.”

But what about the fact that renewable energy sources are intermittent — that is, solar does not produce electricity when the sun is not shining and batteries typically run for about four hours? And what about concerns of battery fires?

Hershman said “long-duration battery (systems) are coming” and technological advancements are leading to more fire-resistant battery chemistries.

“We’re going to have to make sure that we do it safely, first and foremost, and technology is going to be a big part of that,” he said. “But the reality is, we’re going to have to meet this load somehow.”

Before its IPO, SOLV Energy was a private company, created as a division of commercial construction company Swinerton in 2008. Since 2022, SOLV has been owned by American Securities, a private equities firm.

SOLV’s national workforce is made up of about 2,600 employees, with more than 150 based in the San Diego area.

The company’s ticker symbol is MWH, which is appropriate for an energy company since that’s an acronym for “megawatt hours.”

A business owner was arrested early Saturday after allegedly threatening to shoot sheriff’s deputies who had responded to reports of gunshots in Santee, officials said.

Deputies were called around 12:30 a.m. after someone heard possible gunfire along Magnolia Avenue near state Route 67. A short distance away, deputies spotted a 43-year-old man, apparently armed with a handgun, entering a heating and air conditioning business on Rockville Street, authorities said.

Deputies surrounded the property and attempted to contact the man, but he was uncooperative and refused to exit the building, Capt. Chris Katra said in a statement.

Deputies noticed possible bullet holes in a parking sign in front of the business suite, which is near a church. Since there were no victims, deputies made a tactical decision to leave the area, with plans to return later, Katra said.

Shortly after 7:15 a.m., deputies returned and “discovered evidence indicating Sanford was in possession of a handgun and had made threats to shoot deputies if they entered his business,” Katra said. Around 10 a.m., deputies returned with a search warrant.

With the assistance of SWAT officers, they arrested the man on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm and threatening peace officers. A 9mm handgun and multiple shell casings were recovered from the business, Katra said.