Siemens AG (SIE), Europe's biggest engineering company, expects Japan to almost double its capacity of renewable energy by 2030, while continuing with nuclear power generation even after the Fukushima disaster.

Despite rapid growth in the solar industry over the past several years, there is one sobering statistic for the Valley of the Sun.

A surge in commercial and residential construction projects across the Gulf will provide the solar energy sector with huge opportunities for growth and innovation, according to industry experts.

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said July 2 that the government is looking at all options to achieve an optimal resource mix in reconciling energy policy with the challenges of climate change, expressing hopes for Taiwan and the US to deepen cooperation in the development of renewable energy.

A brawl broke out in Taiwan's legislature Friday ahead of a vote whether to hold a national referendum on the island's fourth nuclear complex, construction of which is almost completed.

Global use of solar and wind energy continued to grow significantly in 2012. Solar power consumption increased by 58 percent, to 93 terrawatt-hours (TWh), and the use of wind power increased by 18 percent, to 521 TWh.

Low-cost solar power could supply more than a third of all energy needs in the Western US, if the nation can hit its targets for reducing the cost of solar energy, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

The renewable energy industry has welcomed new planning guidance designed to help local authorities weigh up the need for renewable energy projects against other environmental concerns.

Eric Pickles, the Local Government Secretary, promised to "give local communities a greater say" on where wind farms are built, but new guidance from his department warns councils not to create "inflexible" turbine-free zones.

UCLA researchers have improved upon their previous research by building a transparent solar film that is twice as efficient as the one they produced a year ago.

Planned European Union curbs on Chinese solar panels would last less than half as long as normal trade protection, marking a victory not just for China but also for Germany, the U.K. and other free-market proponents in the EU's biggest dispute of its kind.

The U.K. has been bragging about adding tons of wind capacity recently, but are the additions paying off with big increases in clean energy production? They are.

The USA has tripled its solar-power-generating capacity since 2010 and increased it tenfold since 2007, according to a new report from the non-profit advocacy group Environment America.

China on Thursday announced tariffs on imports of raw materials from the U.S. and South Korea used to make solar panels, in the latest volley in a global trade fight that has ensnared Beijing, Washington and the European Union.

Germany-based Conergy and Gehrlicher Solar filed for insolvency in the past week, while Hawaii-based Hoku also filed for bankruptcy protection.

Chinese solar manufacturers are still trying to sell panels at the lowest prices and have failed to adapt to an industry seeking more efficient components, said SunPower CEO Tom Werner.

Panasonic will close a solar panel manufacturing plant in Hungary to consolidate production in Malaysia and Japan.

Apple, working with Nevada utility NV Energy, is planning to build another solar panel farm next to a data center, and this time it's for its new data center in Reno, Nevada.

The plant may be built in Tomakomai city, Hokkaido, Miyuki Nakayama, a Sharp spokeswoman, said by phone today.

Subsidy limit of EUR6.7 billion (US$8.7 billion) has been passed triggering a halt to future feed-in-tariff (FIT) payments from a point one month after the limit was reached in Italy.

Siemens AG will close its solar power unit after struggling to find a buyer following losses of at least EUR784 million (US$1 billion) euros since 2011 amid CEO Peter Loescher's failed push into that business to expand renewable energy offerings.

More than five times the initial quota of larger solar projects to be developed under Turkey's feed-in-tariff (FIT) program has been submitted to the relevant regulatory authority.

Only days after officially opening its new Turkish plant, China Sunergy (CSUN) has announced that it has commenced shipments. The production facility will have a capacity of 300MW in modules and 100MW of solar cells, when fully ramped.

China-based solar manufacturer Jinko Solar staunched losses whilst increasing shipments and extending its global reach in the first three months of 2013.

Japan is set to overtake Germany as the world's largest solar market by annual installations this year as government incentives to encourage clean energy in light of the Fukushima nuclear crisis attract investment.

China took aim on June 5 at exports of the Europe-made wines favored by its growing middle class, responding to an EU move to impose anti-dumping duties of China-based solar panels as tensions rise between two of the world's biggest trade partners.

Less than a day after the EU said it was imposing preliminary import tariffs on China-based solar panels, China's Ministry of Commerce announced on June 5 that it had begun a trade investigation of wines imported from the European Union.

The move comes a day after the EU imposed anti-dumping levies on China-made solar panel imports.

The Germany industries on June 4 expressed concerns over the EU's decision to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on China-made solar products.

The EU will delay for two months the full impact of import tariffs it planned to put on China-based solar panel equipment, to allow China-based manufacturers to negotiate a settlement that could defuse one of the biggest trade disputes in recent decades, EU officials said on June 4.

The EU's trade chief on June 4 carried out his threat to impose tariffs on solar panels from China.

Tariffs imposed by the EU on Chinese solar panels are lower than expected and may drive up imports for the next two months while officials pursue a trade agreement, renewable-energy developers said.

At least 14 times this year, thieves raided solar parks in Germany's Brandenburg state, carrying off tons of solar panels in a crime that's forcing investors in the world's biggest solar market to tighten security.

China and the EU are quarreling over China-based exports of solar panels, which Europe says are being dumped in its markets.

Trade negotiations between the EU and China ended on May 27 with mutual recriminations.