California is on track to meet an ambitious goal of putting solar panels on up to 3 million Golden State homes by 2016, according to a new report by an environmental group.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday it would investigate whether Chinese companies sell solar panels in the United States at unfair discounts and receive illegal government subsidies.

Climate action groups have hailed Parliament's approval of a carbon tax while warning it is just a first step.

For decades the story of technology has been dominated, in the popular mind and to a large extent in reality, by computing and the things you can do with it.

If oil prices fell from their 2008 peak as far as solar component prices have, a barrel of oil would cost about $10 - a 93 percent drop. Everyone could afford to fuel his own Formula One racecar.

ReneSola Ltd. reined in its guidance for third-quarter revenue and shipments, while noting it expects to post a loss for the period due to continued weak demand and industry oversupply.

Chinese solar-equipment makers said tariffs sought by US competitors would make it harder to expand the use of renewable energy.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. and Renesola Ltd., two Chinese solar companies, reduced their forecasts for shipments and cut the estimated values of their inventories.

China Sunergy and REC Wafer have spent the last few years to-ing and fro-ing between courts in Norway and China in the hope of reaching a settlement over the termination of a supply contract by REC Wafer.

China's Trina Solar Ltd slashed its sales estimates for solar panels on Thursday because of weak European demand and said declines in panel prices would shrink its profit margins.

SunPower Corp. and First Solar Inc., the two largest US solar manufacturers, will reorganize as falling prices and increased competition from China drive down sales.

India's solar power costs could fall by more than 40 percent by 2015, allowing the industry to compete against domestic oil and gas firms without the help of state subsidies, the head of Lanco Solar told Reuters on Wednesday.

The solar power system Facebook Inc. plans for its new Menlo Park headquarters won't just supply electricity. It'll heat water for the showers, too. And maybe help clean dishes in the cafe.

The peremptory cut in subsidies for solar energy announced by the Government this week has stunned an industry that employs 25,000 people and that now faces ruin.

GT Advanced Technologies and Saudi Arabia-based Polysilicon Technology (PTC) have signed a US$47.7 million deal, which will see GT supply its SDR 400 reactors to PTC.

The UK government has launched a consultation paper, which is proposing further, significant photovoltaic feed-in tariff (FIT) cuts for systems registered on or after December 12, 2011.

Renewable energy is generating a lot of political heat. The bankruptcy of solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra, after a half billion dollar loan from the Federal government, has set off a hot debate on Capitol Hill.

A massive new Westford solar-power plant heavily subsidized by state and federal aid is using the same kind of cut-rate Chinese solar panels that drove publicly backed Evergreen Solar and Solyndra out of business, drawing the ire of Massachusetts labor and business groups.

Greece will use future revenue from the country's ?嚙瘡elios' solar energy project to cut debt by as much as 15 billion euros ($21 billion), euro-area leaders said.

While solar's ascent in 2010 was stunning, it would play an even bigger role in our energy mix and have achieved grid parity across many more markets already if fossil fuel subsidies were removed.

Apple is planning to build a huge solar farm to augment the power supply of one of its dirtiest datacenter clusters.

In order to promote solar power, the government is subsidising the technology. Besides, efforts are also on to encourage people to get into using the solar energy equipment.

A recent report from the USA has found return on investment from solar power is higher than any other renewable energy source.