BP Solar is closing its U.S. manufacturing facility and will refocus is business on developing solar power projects rather than making panels for them, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

Solar energy is gaining fans in homeowners who aren't just tree huggers - they're penny pinchers.

Yingli has experienced positive growth in the U.S. solar market, with module shipments having notably increased. It also announced the opening of a new R&D facility in San Francisco.

There are two key goals for any solar energy equipment makers: converting a greater percentage of the sunlight into electricity and cutting production costs. Suntech Power, which is the world's top solar cell and panel maker, has launched two solar panels built with technologies that can do both, the company said Tuesday.

German solar company Q-Cells unveiled its thin film modules in the United States on Wednesday as it seeks to cash in on growing demand in North America while lessening its reliance on the European market, where government support for solar is declining.

Q-Cells SE (QCE), the German solar-cell manufacturer that's fallen 56 percent in Frankfurt trading over the past year, is open to a takeover bid, Chief Executive Officer Nedim Cen said.

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) has selected ST-Ericsson's Thor advanced HSPA+ modem to bring lightning-fast connectivity to its new Infuse 4G smartphone for the US market.

"US day-one sales numbers for Nintendo 3DS were the highest of any Nintendo hand-held system in our history," Nintendo said in a statement. The company promised more detailed stats on April 14, when NPD Group will release a report about the month's video game sales.

AT&T has said it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $39 billion that would make it the largest cellphone company in the US. The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny.

Samsung Electronics won a US trade ruling in its efforts to block imports of flash-memory chips made by Spansion. Shares of Spansion fell after the close of regular-hours trading.

The pending acquisition of Motorola's mobile telecom equipment arm by Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), which is pending approval by China's Ministry of Commerce, would make it more difficult for domestic rivals Huawei Technologies and ZTE to enter the US market, an analyst said.

Snowstorms have deterred shoppers at post-Christmas sales in America's northeast. However, some analysts expect the storms will boost online sales.

Copper advanced for a third day from London to Shanghai on optimism the economic recovery in the US remains on track, boosting the demand outlook for the metal amid supply disruptions at the world's third-largest copper mine.

"We are working on LTE device for next year, 2011. We think the US mobile operator will be taking some leading and pushing the LTE 4G in the US market, but however, we are seeing the rest of world will be deploying LTE network elsewhere in 2011, could be second half of 2011," said Peter Chou.

More Americans went shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend than in recent memory, and online shopping accounted for the highest percentage of the weekend's sales yet.

"Overall, the SIA forecast for 2012 looks like the "death" of the semiconductor industry, and we couldn't disagree more!" said Bill McClean, president of IC Insights. In IC Insights opinion, 2012 has tremendous upside potential for the semiconductor industry.

The world's major industrial economies can't all export their way to prosperity.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, saw its quarterly profits rise 3.6%, but sales in its home US market fell for the fifth quarter in a row.

With a skimpy 8% share of the US market, according to the research firm comScore, Nokia trails Samsung, LG, Motorola and Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry.

Engine control units made by Hitachi couldn't be delivered on time to Nissan because ICs needed to make them were not available from a supplier, Hitachi said.

Toshiba plans to expand manufacturing capacity at its plant in Houston, Texas for production of high-performance drive motors for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs).

US stocks have plummeted amid fears of contagion from the eurozone debt crisis and a pending vote on overhauling financial regulation.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has approved a controversial plan to build the nation's first offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound... The decision to build the 130 wind turbines has followed almost a decade of reviews, challenges and appeals at the local, state and federal level.

BYD has massive expansion plans for 2010 and would consider building a plant in the US, the company said a day after announcing annual profits had tripled. The automaker will put aside 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) this year to grow its business.

First Solar has announced a power purchase agreement to supply Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) with renewable electricity from a 300 megawatt utility-scale photovoltaic solar power facility that First Solar is developing in Southern California.

Many of the nation's top retail chains reported much stronger-than-expected February sales Thursday, furthering hopes that U.S. consumers are starting to loosen their purse strings.

The emergence of the world economy from the worst slump since World War II spurred businesses in Taiwan, where exports equal half of GDP, to boost production and hire more workers.

Under the terms of the agreement, government officials said Samsung must build four manufacturing plants in Ontario, promising 16,000 direct and indirect jobs over the next five years.

Singapore's economy probably shrank this quarter after six months of growth. Manufacturing output, which accounts for about a quarter of Singapore's economy, fell 8.2% in November from a year earlier.