LDK Solar is the world's second largest manufacturer of solar wafers - displaced from the top spot by its rapidly growing rival GCL-Poly Energy Holdings last year. The company is also a leading vertically integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products and competes with other solar energy players like First Solar, Suntech Power and Sunpower.

The solar power industry is facing a double threat from a Congress that may turn off the flow of federal subsidies and take a pass on mandating renewable-energy standards that would increase demand.

Suntech Power's Just-Roof building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) module has been approved by French certification body CEIAB (Comit矇 d'Evaluation de l'Int矇gration au B璽ti). CEIAB is France's official evaluation committee for all BIPV products, and its endorsement sees Just Roof gain eligibility for the country's highest available feed-in-tariff.

Ontario's Minister of Energy, Brad Duguid, was on site as Eclipsall Energy opened the doors of its solar PV panel manufacturing facility in Toronto, Canada. Full production is expected to occur later this summer at the 120,000 square foot facility, which accommodates all of Eclipsall's operations and has room for expansion.

Two China Sunergy subsidiaries are investing RMB1.8 billion (US$277 million) in a new 1GW solar cell manufacturing facility in Yangzhou, China. The joint venture will concentrate on the production of China Sunergy's newly-developed Quasar cells, with the first 500MW batch set to be delivered in the first half of 2012.

LDK Solar Co., Ltd., a leading vertically integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products, today announced that its Board of Directors approved a share buyback program that authorizes LDK Solar to repurchase up to US$110 million of its American Depository Shares ("ADSs") in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. The program does not obligate LDK Solar to acquire any particular amount of its ADSs and may be modified or suspended at any time at the sole discretion of LDK Solar.

Soaring silver prices are hampering the solar industry's ability to compete with fossil fuels.

Britain's biggest array of solar panels has begun generating in Oxfordshire. The first large ground system to feed into the national grid will benefit from the tariff scheme paying a premium for supplying clean electricity.

Solar is one of the power sources the government of the world's third-largest economy is focusing on after the March earthquake and tsunami shattered Tokyo's nuclear-dependent energy policy.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., one of China's biggest solar equipment makers, said it is prepared for an industry-wide capacity glut and that its narrowing profit margins are good for consumers.

Solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co. expects to double its market share in Japan to at least 10 percent in 2012, helped by the expected adoption of a feed-in-tariff scheme, the head of its Japan business said on Tuesday.

Californian Governor Jerry Brown, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the Mayor of Blythe Joseph DeConnick have taken part in a ground breaking ceremony at the site of two vast solar-thermal power plants in Blythe, California.

A recent report into the silicon and ferrosilicon markets has found rebounding prices as demand for solar grade polysilicon continues to grow. The report also finds higher profit margins in photovoltaic industry supply than silicon production for other industries.

Several large sapphire furnace orders have helped GT Solar to almost double its equipment order backlog guidance from approximately US$1 billion to US$1.6 billion. However, technical upgrades offered to existing customers of DSS650 furnaces are tracking ahead of schedule, enabling GT Solar to raise revenue guidance for the current quarter to approximately, US$225 million, up from previous guidance of between US$140 million - US$150 million.

It was a successful trade show. That was expressed by all the exhibitors whom pv magazine spoke with, regardless of whether they were inverter manufacturers, junction box makers, cables and connectors producers or mounting system folks.

Q-Cells SE (QCE), the German solar-cell manufacturer that's fallen 56 percent in Frankfurt trading over the past year, is open to a takeover bid, Chief Executive Officer Nedim Cen said.