During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that 'broad agreement' was reached to ramp up the firepower of the eurozone rescue fund.

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.

Germany's solar industry has endured a difficult year and the Federal Network Agency and transmission system operators (TSO) have responded accordingly by leaving the Renewable Energy Law (EEG) levy virtually unchanged at ??.3592 per kWh.

The bill would require the commerce department to use estimates of currency undervaluation when calculating so-called "countervailing duties," imposed against imports deemed to be state-subsidised.

Two days before a looming deadline, the U.S. Department of Energy finalized two loan guarantees Wednesday from the same economic-stimulus program that backed Solyndra LLC.

Some may think of the solar energy industry as new and even in need of government help, but those who have worked in it for decades say plenty of privately funded solar power companies are thriving.

Executives of the failed solar- panel maker Solyndra LLC are refusing to answer questions at a congressional hearing today, a sign that the first serious financial scandal of the Obama administration has arrived.

According to sources, newly installed photovoltaic capacity in Germany hit 1.25 gigawatts (GW) between June and July of this year. As such, there are fears solar incentives will be slashed by 15 percent in January 2012.

Facing a frustrated public and a skeptical Congress, President Barack Obama will pitch at least $300 billion in jobs proposals aimed at getting Americans back to work quickly and forcing Republicans to take a share of the responsibility for solving the country's economic woes.

The UK's headlong rush into renewable energy - one ignored by the rest of the world - will hit British jobs and then general incomes, an economic study finds.

Recession in rich countries has discouraged some would-be incomers from trying their luck. America, for instance, has seen a sharp decline in Mexicans trying to cross its southern border. Immigration to Europe has slowed. Some studies also suggest that increased inflows of migrants are a leading indicator of a pickup in growth.

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Friday that the economy is recovering and the nation's long-term prospects remained strong, an upbeat assessment that offered little indication of any plans for additional measures to boost short-term growth.

Japan approved a bill today to subsidize electricity from renewable sources, joining European nations in shifting away from nuclear power after the Fukushima reactor meltdowns in March.

The Japanese government has announced a new US$100 billion fund to help companies combat the strength of the yen.

China is putting a competitive squeeze on some of its partners that still use the mainland as a source of low-cost design and manufacturing. Good Will Instrument, a 700-person test and measurement company in Taiwan, is just one of the companies feeling the pinch.

The JV is based on the MoU signed in December 2010, under the framework for reinforcing cooperation in economic and industrial development between the Brazilian and Japanese governments, including the cultivation of a Brazilian semiconductor industry.

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve did not offer ailing markets the short-term salve they were looking for Tuesday with an announcement of additional asset purchases in a bid to stimulate US growth, but the central bank did signal that its accommodative interest rate policy will remain in place until at least mid-2013.

S&P's decision to lower the US credit rating was proceeded last week by a downgrade of US debt by a less-known Chinese rating agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. It was Dagong's second such downgrade, moves Xinhua painted as prescient.

Rebates for Los Angeles solar panel installations are 32% lower under the newly relaunched Solar Initiative Program, which will start accepting applications next month.

The Ontario government has negotiated a 75-per-cent cut in its controversial subsidy to a Korean consortium that is building new wind and solar farms in the province.

On Friday, representatives from the individual federal states approved the energy law, which was decided on by the German federal government over a week ago.

Investor concern among Italian and foreign photovoltaic operators is said to be running high after rumors emerged that the government would further cut incentives. Despite assurances to the contrary, GIFI says the industry is panicked.

Satcon Technology has released preliminary unaudited results for revenue and gross margin for the second quarter of 2011, which show that the company has revised its gross margin for the quarter downwards from 17-20% to within the 7-11% range. Revenue for the quarter, previously forecasted at between US$50 and US$60 million, now looks set to come in at between US$45 and US$47 million.

Leader of the UK's opposition party, Ed Miliband, has challenged the government's decision to slash the country's photovoltaic feed-in tariffs (FITs) for systems over 50 kilowatts in size.

The government also added that it is in the process of developing a policy to give preference to domestically-produced electronics goods in purchases by the government and government-linked projects.

Germany's solar industry is to be subjected to four subsidy cuts over the next 12 months, according to the revised draft of the country's Renewable Energy Act [EEG]. The final two of these reductions had not been included in the original amendment to the bill and their addition is a major blow to the country's solar industry.