Renewable energy is generating a lot of political heat. The bankruptcy of solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra, after a half billion dollar loan from the Federal government, has set off a hot debate on Capitol Hill.

A massive new Westford solar-power plant heavily subsidized by state and federal aid is using the same kind of cut-rate Chinese solar panels that drove publicly backed Evergreen Solar and Solyndra out of business, drawing the ire of Massachusetts labor and business groups.

Greece will use future revenue from the country's ?嚙瘡elios' solar energy project to cut debt by as much as 15 billion euros ($21 billion), euro-area leaders said.

While solar's ascent in 2010 was stunning, it would play an even bigger role in our energy mix and have achieved grid parity across many more markets already if fossil fuel subsidies were removed.

Broadcom was down more than 4% at last check as Chief Executive Scott McMcGregor said in a statement that the company's outlook "reflects potential industry softness."

Qualcomm has announced that its Snapdragon mobile processors power the first Nokia Lumia smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710.

Rubicon Technology says that it has shipped over 200,000 six-inch sapphire wafers to LED manufacturers worldwide.

Apple is planning to build a huge solar farm to augment the power supply of one of its dirtiest datacenter clusters.

In order to promote solar power, the government is subsidising the technology. Besides, efforts are also on to encourage people to get into using the solar energy equipment.

GOVERNMENT help for solar power was supposed to be a triple play: jobs at a time of dire short-term need; incubation of an American industry sure to be important on a global scale in the next few years; and a long-term reduction in climate-changing pollution.

Infineon Technologies is the global market leader in power semiconductors for the eighth consecutive year. According to IMS Research data, Infineon again strengthened its position in 2010 and commands an 11.2% share of the overall market.

Strong growth in customer numbers helped UK chipmaker ARM beat analysts' forecasts with its third-quarter results, despite "below seasonal growth in the semiconductor industry."

"Economic uncertainty continues to weigh on demand in almost every major market segment in which we operate," said CEO Rich Templeton. "Our revenue for the third quarter was higher than we expected though, overall, the quarter was below the seasonal average. We expect the same in the fourth quarter."

Bridgelux Inc., a maker of light- emitting diode, or LED, lighting, received $15 million in financing to accelerate research and development.

A recent report from the USA has found return on investment from solar power is higher than any other renewable energy source.

"TSMC has ceased to participate in the program," said Ebun Caldeira, director of finance and market research at SIA. Caldeira declined to say why TSMC has pulled out. "We do have some efforts underway to get TSMC to rejoin," she said.

Japanese electronics maker Panasonic will scale back domestic semiconductor output by the end of March 2012 and cut about 1,000 jobs, reflecting its recent move to reduce TV panel production, the Nikkei business daily said.

Installed capacity in Italy is expected to reach 12.5GW by the end of the year, according to the chairman of the Italian Photovoltaic Industry Association (GIFI), Valerio Natalizia.

Programmable logic vendor Altera has reported third quarter sales that came in below analysts' expectations and the company's own revised guidance, with CEO John Daane saying customers are burning through existing inventories in a manner reminiscent of the downturn of 2008.

Taiwan and mainland China will focus on LED lighting, TFT-LCD, wireless cities, low-temperature logistics, and electric cars initially for cross-Taiwan Strait industrial cooperation.

A Washington lobbying firm reported it did $20,000 of work for Solyndra LLC as the company approached bankruptcy, according to federal documents

Street-light-manufacturer Schr矇der has supplied SSL luminaires to Arraiolos, Portugal based on Osram LEDs, while Cooper Lighting has introduced a new version of its LightBAR that primarily targets outdoor lighting.

Xilinx's fiscal second-quarter profit fell 26% as the programmable-chip maker posted sales declines in its communications and industrial segments. Looking to the third quarter, the company projected a 3% to 8% sales decline from the second quarter.

Japanese cabinet ministers will call on the government to ease rules on building geothermal, wind and hydraulic power plants to boost renewable energy use after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday.