After a marathon all-night session and another day of wrangling at a crucial summit in Brussels, European leaders hammered out a deal they hope will stave off a eurozone collapse and create an anti-crisis framework for the future.

Struggling solar manufacturers will likely be driven into mergers with rivals to survive a sector squeeze, a trend that could draw major Asian conglomerates deeper into the renewable energy sector.

Building new nuclear power stations will make it harder for the UK to switch to renewable energy, said one of the top German officials leading the country's nuclear energy phase-out.

The one millionth photovoltaic system has been connected to Germany's grid, according to the country's solar industry association, BSW-Solar.

The announcement comes just weeks after HTC warned that its revenues could fall by much more the 8% in this quarter compared to the third quarter.

Third quarter results from Hanwha SolarOne echoed pricing pressure and weak demand, especially from Germany that led to margin pressure, inventory write downs and losses.

Germany's Economy Ministry released a paper on Thursday with a proposal to reduce the growth of new photovoltaic installations to 1,000 megawatts (MW) a year, a move that would dethrone the country as the world's largest market for solar panels.

Germany's Environment Ministry on Friday dismissed a proposal from the Economy Ministry to reduce the growth of new photovoltaic installations to 1,000 megawatt (MW) a year, saying a 15-percent cut for 2012 was enough for now.

Germany's largest module manufacturer, SolarWorld reported weakening financial conditions in the third quarter. Shipments and revenue remained flat with the second quarter but margins declined as weak demand and declining prices impacted results.

Germany's solar industry has endured a difficult year and the Federal Network Agency and transmission system operators (TSO) have responded accordingly by leaving the Renewable Energy Law (EEG) levy virtually unchanged at ??.3592 per kWh.

Germany, the world's biggest solar panel market, added 664MW of the devices in June, a 69% drop from the same period last year, according to preliminary figures from the German power grid regulator.

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e43569d4-e30f-11e0-bb55-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1YYPv5fmw The US solar power industry employs more than 100,000 people, twice as many as it did two years ago and more than the steel industry or coal mining, the industry's trade group has said.

The general market slowdown in lighting is affecting companies in all parts of the supply chain, delaying Siemens' intended initial public offering of Osram, while public companies take a hit in the stock market.

SMA Solar Technology AG, the world's biggest maker of solar inverters, slashed full-year targets only days after its chief executive called the outlook challenging, confirming fears the industry bellwether was not immune to falling demand.

The Italian network agency, GSE, reports that photovoltaic installations in Italy have reached over 10 gigawatts (GW). Already this year, says the agency, 6.5 GW have been installed.

According to sources, newly installed photovoltaic capacity in Germany hit 1.25 gigawatts (GW) between June and July of this year. As such, there are fears solar incentives will be slashed by 15 percent in January 2012.

Two weeks after Conergy was busy putting out fires surrounding the rumors that it was planning to close its manufacturing plant in Frankfurt, the company has advised that it will be halting production of its wafer and cell manufacturing lines at the German facility.

German exports fell by 1.8% in July, much more than expected, official figures have shown.

Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) developed a solar unit with "record" output, and Roth & Rau AG (R8R) and Day4 Energy Inc. (DFE) created a module with increased power efficiency as cell makers compete to produce greater energy at lower cost.

Osram AG (Munich, Germany), the lighting subsidiary of Siemens AG, is celebrating the opening of a pilot-line manufacturing plant for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Global Solar Energy Inc, which makes copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic cells and modules at its 40MW-capacity plant in Tucson, AZ, USA, has commissioned its new production facility in Berlin-Adlershof, Germany.

Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday.

Germany-based Solar Millennium AG said in a statement released last week that it has changed its plans for the proposed 1GW Blythe solar farm in California, and will install the first 500MW of the facility using PV panels.