First Solar Inc.'s (FSLR) first-quarter earnings fell 33% because of lower sale prices, higher costs and a slowdown in Europe's solar market, prompting the U.S. solar-panel maker to aim for new markets.

Shares of LDK Solar (LDK) were tumbling after hours following the company's first-quarter guidance.The stock, which gained 3.3% today, was down 2.4% in recent after hours trading.

Bruce Sohn, First Solar's president of operations, may pursue work as chief executive of another solar company when he steps down at the end of this month, an analyst said. A First Solar spokesman said he couldn't comment on Sohn's departure.

LDK Solar has announced a business investment of approximately US$40 million to establish a new manufacturing plant in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province (China). This new manufacturing facility will have capacity to supply two million 2-inch equivalent pieces of sapphire wafers per year and be positioned to capture the growing opportunities in the LED industry.

The shock Italy gave us this week is another reason to stick with manufacturers that have project development divisions. First Solar and SunPower lead that group and should be cushioned if the second half of the year is tougher than expected. Most Chinese manufacturers are still trying to integrate and grow their upstream operations and don't have nearly the downstream capability of these two powerhouses.

First Solar reported a 10% rise in fourth-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street estimates, but the company lowered the top end of its 2011 sales forecast and its shares fell 4.7% after hours.

Solar Frontier, a unit of Japanese refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu,said it began production at a 100 billion yen(US$1.2 billion)thin-film solar module factory.

Yesterday First Solar closed at a new 52 week high after Goldman Sachs posted a Buy recommendation and news of a $1 billion manufacturing plant in Vietnam hit.

PV system integrator MHH Solartechnik has signed a multiyear contract to sell Solar Frontier's next generation CIS modules to its German customers. Solartechnik will begin selling the modules in March, with the total volume of sales expected to exceed 100MW.

Germany's government and an industry group said Thursday they have agreed to trim solar power subsidies by up to 15 percent this year as demand thrives in the country, a leading producer and user of the renewable energy source.

The San Francisco-based bank said in a statement that such agreements "are a common first step in a business relationship involving a Chinese company," and that the partnership "could lead to the development and building of solar power projects."

Germany's planned cuts to subsidies for photovoltaic solar energy installations could take effect as early as July, people familiar with the matter have said.

The Marlborough, Mass.-based solar technologies company said the closure will come as it ramps up its production in China. The company produces solar wafers at a company-owned plant in Wuhan, China.

The latest data from Germany's solar installations database recorded 340.5 megawatts of solar installs in October, a decline of 151 MW from the September level of 492 MW.

The investors, including China Development Bank and China Construction Bank Corp., will take an 18.46 percent stake in the Chinese company's polysilicon unit.

Germany will account for a reduced 40 percent of world demand in 2011, but that will be offset by growth in the U.S., Italy, France, the Czech Republic and others countries. The global demand for the solar market should grow 20 percent next year to 17.7 gigawatts.

A few days old, but still worth reading. Maybe the real application for solar power isn't giant farms in Germany but solar power kits to villages in India and sub-Saharan Africa.

Dow Chemical plans to push its game-changing "solar shingle" technology, which installs on roofs like ordinary shingles but can generate electricity from sunlight, into commercial markets in 2011, which will bring the largest U.S. chemical manufacturer into an entirely new and lucrative market.

The amount of noise coming out of Germany about proposed additional solar feed-in tariff cuts is an annual rite of passage -- and period of unrest -- for solar investors. Yet there's been a major change of tone this year in the battle of the future level of installations in the solar sector's leading market.

China is defending its subsidies for wind and solar power against a U.S. complaint to the World Trade Organization that such support is unfair, but says it will work to resolve the dispute.

Germany's solar energy industry is open to accelerating part of a reduction in subsidies should installations grow too quickly, a lobby group said.

A look at the big events and trends in a pivotal year for the solar power industry.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study reveals cost of solar PV installations in US down 30 per cent, but still around a third more than in countries which have pioneered solar panel deployment