Japan-based Kyocera plans to sell 25% more solar panels as an incentive program for clean energy boosts demand in Japan, which is projected to become the second-largest market in the world this year.

Panasonic said its solar panel operation will probably remain profitable amid growing demand from domestic homeowners.

The trustee administering US$541 million in bonds from Suntech Power sent the solar company a notice of default yesterday as the deadline to redeem the notes passed, a person familiar with the matter said.

Suntech Power Holdings said it didn't make a required payment on US$541 million of bonds that matured Friday.

Solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings reached an agreement with some of its lenders to defer its obligations on a US$541 million loan due this Friday by two months, providing the company more time to restructure the debt.

The European Union launched an investigation on Thursday into alleged state subsidies for China-based solar panel manufacturers, intensifying a trade war between the two centered on the multi-billion dollar solar power market.

Cash-strapped Sharp is in talks to sell its key solar panel plant in Japan as part of an asset sale seeking more than US$1.2 billion, local media said on Thursday.

First Solar Inc. chairman Mike Ahearn has found the best way to make money from photovoltaics is to sell whole power plants to Warren Buffett and NextEra Energy Inc. instead of competing with China on panel sales.

Non-conventional energy projects in the district have received a boost with more and more people coming forward to install solar panels and bio-gas plants to combat power shortage.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is announcing plans to install solar panels at Massachusetts stores in the next two years, making it the largest user of solar power in the state.

Solar panels prices have kept marching lower this year, extending steep declines seen in 2011 and keeping pressure on hard-hit manufacturers who have struggled to eke out profits, industry experts said.

Installations of solar panels will continue to increase strongly in Germany in the first six months of the year, government and industry sources told Reuters, dealing a blow to efforts by the ruling coalition to get the market under control.

One of the world's fastest-growing solar-panel manufacturers, Tokyo-based Solar Frontier, may soon increase production still more with help from its oil-company-funded parent company, Showa Shell Sekiyu.

Pay-as-you-go products may be synonymous with mobile phones but a solar energy service in Africa is harnessing the popular business model to bring affordable electricity to the continent's remotest communities.

SunPower Corp., the US solar panel- maker controlled by Total SA, is strong enough to resist competition from Chinese manufacturers until the industry revives in 2014, an executive at the French oil company said.

Suntech Power's ebullient Chief Executive Officer Shi Zhengrong got plenty of press at Davos for his proclamation that solar power will be able to compete without subsidies against conventional power sources in half the world by 2015.

In September alone, some 16,000 households had solar panels installed - twice as many as in June - as everyone from farmers to vicars to Mick Jagger (plus thousands of other canny home owners with 瞿12,000 to spare) scrambled to take advantage of generous government subsidies.