One of the world's largest solar energy farms has opened in Southern California's desert, with 160,000 homes now able to power lights and appliances through sunlight converted into electricity, federal officials said on Tuesday.

The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, located in Riverside County about 170 miles (273 km) east of downtown Los Angeles, was operating at full capacity and providing 550 megawatts of electricity to the grid, the Department of the Interior said.

The farm's official opening on Monday came weeks after California Governor Jerry Brown laid out an ambitious plan to generate 50 percent of the state's electricity from renewable resources within 15 years.