A new report shows that China, considered the looming threat for competitors in the renewable energy business, may not stand a chance against the booming American solar sector.

The global solar cell market is projected to expand to 13.31 trillion yen in 2030, up about 290% from 2010, research firm Fuji Keizai Co. said Tuesday.

The solar-equipment industry has begun its biggest consolidation in at least two years as photovoltaic systems plunge in price, forcing weaker companies to team with competitors or close shop.

Deutsche Bank has provided financing for two major PV projects in southern Europe. The bank's Asset Finance & Leasing (AFL) division help fund the construction of SAG Solarstrom's 48MW plant in Canaro, Italy and arranged the debt financing required for InfraClass Energie 5 to buy a 15.3MW system in Toledo, Spain.

GE Capital Real Estate and SunEdison flipped the switch on the first two of fifteen solar rooftop systems, which fall under the Ontario FiT program. The solar projects are part of GE Capital Real Estate's environmental sustainability initiative with SunEdison agreeing to build and operate all fifteen of the PV systems.

The database tapped by hackers includes member e-mail addresses and, in some cases, personally identifiable information such as birthdates, homepage URLs and screen names from messaging services such as AIM, Skype and Yahoo.

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.

TDG Holding plans to invest 360 million yuan to upgrade a facility that produces four-inch LED sapphire substrate, with annual capacity of 600,000 pieces, reports yicai.com, citing a company filing. It expects the upgrade to contribute 298.8 million yuan of revenue and yield net profit of 77.323 million yuan annually, for a yield rate of 21.31 percent and an investment return period of 5.94 years.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has introduced IR OSLON SFH 4715S, a compact infrared LED with nanostack chip technology. The IR LED provides optical power of over a watt.

Global Solar Energy Inc, which makes copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic cells and modules at its 40MW-capacity plant in Tucson, AZ, USA, has commissioned its new production facility in Berlin-Adlershof, Germany.

Solar generators may produce the majority of the world's power within 50 years, slashing the emissions of greenhouse gases that harm the environment, according to a projection by the International Energy Agency.

It took just three months to put the microcontroller manufacturer's hard-hit Naka facility back in operation.

Apple's latest chip technology won't appear in the next-generation iPad until June 2012 at the earliest, according to a firm that tracks the mobile processor industry.