The production cost of solar power could be halved by 2013 given higher demand, improved technology and economies of scale, according to to Suntech Power Holdings Co, the world's largest thin-film solar cell manufacturer.

The sector is beginning to see a decline in sales and product prices after several years of fast growth.

LDK Solar is the world's second largest manufacturer of solar wafers - displaced from the top spot by its rapidly growing rival GCL-Poly Energy Holdings last year. The company is also a leading vertically integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products and competes with other solar energy players like First Solar, Suntech Power and Sunpower.

The solar power industry is facing a double threat from a Congress that may turn off the flow of federal subsidies and take a pass on mandating renewable-energy standards that would increase demand.

Suntech Power's Just-Roof building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) module has been approved by French certification body CEIAB (Comit矇 d'Evaluation de l'Int矇gration au B璽ti). CEIAB is France's official evaluation committee for all BIPV products, and its endorsement sees Just Roof gain eligibility for the country's highest available feed-in-tariff.

Ontario's Minister of Energy, Brad Duguid, was on site as Eclipsall Energy opened the doors of its solar PV panel manufacturing facility in Toronto, Canada. Full production is expected to occur later this summer at the 120,000 square foot facility, which accommodates all of Eclipsall's operations and has room for expansion.

Britain's biggest array of solar panels has begun generating in Oxfordshire. The first large ground system to feed into the national grid will benefit from the tariff scheme paying a premium for supplying clean electricity.

Solar is one of the power sources the government of the world's third-largest economy is focusing on after the March earthquake and tsunami shattered Tokyo's nuclear-dependent energy policy.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., one of China's biggest solar equipment makers, said it is prepared for an industry-wide capacity glut and that its narrowing profit margins are good for consumers.

Solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co. expects to double its market share in Japan to at least 10 percent in 2012, helped by the expected adoption of a feed-in-tariff scheme, the head of its Japan business said on Tuesday.

It was a successful trade show. That was expressed by all the exhibitors whom pv magazine spoke with, regardless of whether they were inverter manufacturers, junction box makers, cables and connectors producers or mounting system folks.

Subsidies for large-scale solar power installations are to be cut drastically, in a move that ministers said would preserve funds for households to put up panels, but industry warned would mean a slower uptake of renewable power.

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.

The 20th Intersolar Europe has opened its doors today in Munich. While the trade show floors are still quite empty, word on the street is that, spurred on by China's progress, India is getting ready to significantly ramp up its photovoltaic market. Automation is the watchword.

Playing host to the world's largest exhibition for the solar industry, the Messe M羹nchen has once again opened its doors to Intersolar Europe. Thousands of visitors and exhibitors are expected to attend this year's event, which is estimated to see more than 2,200 companies from 47 countries showcase products and services in the areas of photovoltaics, PV production and solar thermal technology.

Kim Jong-kap, the former head of Hynix Semiconductor, has been named as new CEO and chairman of Siemens' Korean affiliate.

Freescale Semiconductor has entered into a strategic alliance with Fuji Electric to collaborate on insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) technology and products for hybrid electric and electric vehicles (HEV and EV).

The crisis in Japan has revived anti-nuclear passions worldwide, putting governments on the defensive and undermining the nuclear power industry's recent renaissance as the clean energy of the future.