Saudi Arabia is seeking investors for a $109 billion plan to create a solar industry that generates a third of the nation's electricity by 2032, according to officials at the agency developing the plan.

Despite strong opposition from environmentalists, the state Assembly on Thursday approved controversial legislation that allows a solar energy developer to bypass local agencies in seeking to build a large-scale power plant in a valley that is home to desert tortoises, golden eagles and bighorn sheep.

May 10 (Reuters) - Applied Materials Inc will move its solar equipment plant to China from Europe to cut costs and tap into the growing appetite for clean energy in Asia. Asia is expected to overtake Europe as the largest solar power generation hub, aided by lower manufacturing costs, while falling subsidies and weak demand have hurt the industry in Europe.

series of hacks perpetrated against so-called "smart meter" installations over the past several years may have cost a single U.S. electric utility hundreds of millions of dollars annually, the FBI said in a cyber intelligence bulletin obtained by KrebsOnSecurity.

German solar-power companies expect sales to decline by 50 percent this year because of subsidy cuts in the world's second-largest market for the industry, according to a survey by the BSW-Solar lobby.

After suffering losses last year amid US anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigations, Chinese solar panel manufacturers may be seeing a light near the end of the tunnel: a nuclear-free Japan.

NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) posted a smaller first-quarter loss despite weak demand amid warm weather, but the company plans to see revenue growth this summer as prices rise.

A shakeout that is rattling the solar panel industry has sent First Solar, once among the industry's biggest and strongest companies, to a wide quarterly loss.

Declining prices whether on the spot market or long-term supply agreements are making business conditions very tough for polysilicon producers, regardless of their market size or purity of the material they produce.

LDK Solar Co. (LDK), the world's second- largest maker of wafers for cells, cut 5,554 jobs this year after plunging prices cut margins to a record low amid a renewable-energy shakeout that's pushed at least eight solar companies into bankruptcy and prompted thousands of industry firings.

The San Mateo, Calif., company said it filed confidential draft registration documents last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was unclear when the company planned to file public registration documents and when it plans to go public.

Solar panel installations have fallen by almost 90% in the weeks since the government halved cut the subsidy available, according to Department of Energy and Climate Change figures.

The National Solar Mission, which aims to install 20,000 MW capacity of solar energy by 2020, has commissioned 89% of its allotted capacity in its first stage, government officials said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's effort to create jobs in renewable energy is faltering as subsidy cuts and competition from Chinese manufacturers forces the industry to stop hiring for the first time in eight years.

President Ma Ying-jeou repeated his call for energy saving Wednesday and revealed that the Presidential Office might replace all lamps in th

NRG Energy, First Solar and MidAmerican Solar representatives gathered to connect the first 100MW of the 290MW Agua Caliente Solar Project to the grid. The project is owned by NRG Energy and MidAmerican, while operator First Solar designed and constructed the plant in Yuma County, Arizona, using thin-film modules.

South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Corp. and ESB Novusmodus LP, a fund backed by Irish state utility Electricity Supply Board, led a $15.5 million Series B investment in closely held TenKsolar Inc.

German solar installations may have more than tripled in the first quarter from a year ago, the country's deputy environment minister said.

Some domestic solar manufacturers praised the recent import levy as a victory for job creation, but an analysis of the industry suggests the duty may actually be a job killer.

A Japanese government panel is likely to recommend utilities pay 42 yen (51 cents) per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for solar power supplies in a feed-in tariff scheme, in line with requests by the solar power industry, the Nikkei business daily said

A DWP pilot program will let solar power producers reduce their bills and sell excess energy, but some say they're worried the new system will be plagued by the same problems as an older system.

Federal subsidies for renewable energy in the US are set to collapse unless there is a change in policy, according to a new analysis from researchers at three think-tanks.