Trina Solar said it is interested in teaming with or investing in developers in Europe, where solar-panel makers have extra capacity.

Solyndra said it has scuttled its factory expansion in Fremont, a move that will stop the company's plans to hire 1,000 workers.

The first solar energy project on federal land has broken ground in California's Mojave Desert.

Applied Materials announced that Hareon Solar has selected its SmartFactory manufacturing automation software to improve productivity across Hareon's solar photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing operations in China.

Solar energy and wind power will be strategic industries leading Korea's economy, with the government deciding to invest 40 trillion won in the renewable energy field by 2015 in partnership with the private sector so they can take the place in the nation's economy semiconductors and shipbuilding had in the past.

"I love the Generation Y term 'frenemy,' because today we're partners, tomorrow we're competitors," Sharp Solar senior vice president Eric Hafter said of his rival solar makers.

Microinverter maker Enphase Energy announced today that its microinverter technology will power 4.5MW of solar projects developed and operated by Main Street Power and financed by Morgan Stanley.

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries and France's Saint-Gobain will jointly build the largest thin-film solar cell plant in South Korea.

LDK said it expects third-quarter revenue of $610 million to $640 million, up from a previous forecast of revenue of $570 million to $600 million. LDK revised higher its wafer shipments outlook to 550MW to 570MW from its prior outlook of 520MW to 550MW.

Suntech Power Holdings has struck deals with four companies: Azuray, Enphase, National Semiconductor and Tigo to enable "smart panel" solutions.

The Chinese maker of polysilicon used in solar panels expects to offer 8 million American Depository shares at between $10.50 and $12.50 each. It has given underwriters the right to buy about 1.2 million additional shares if demand exceeds initial supply.

Rising competition from Chinese solar companies and high entry costs are likely to limit the number of start-up companies going into the PV manufacturing market, a managing director at private equity firm CMEA Capital said.

Retail juggernaut Wal-Mart is using panels from First Solar and MiaSole in what is expected to be one of the largest business installations of thin-film solar technology.

Peter Lehner, a blogger for Natural Resource Defense Council, recently visited China and Trina Solar. An interesting article on his visit.

MIT chemical engineers have devised a way to use carbon nanotubes (hollow tubes of carbon atoms) to form antennas that capture and focus light energy, resulting in more powerful and smaller solar arrays.

The cells make use of proteins from the machinery of plants, turning sunlight into electric charges that can do work. The self-repairing mechanism, reported in Nature Chemistry, could lead to much longer-lasting solar cells

LDK Solar said it has filed a lawsuit against solar module maker Canadian Solar demanding compensation from contract termination.

China Power Investment Corp has won bids for seven of the thirteen solar concession projects, China Securities Journal reported, without saying where it got the information.

GCL-Poly, in which China's sovereign wealth fund holds a stake, signed an agreement with DelSolar to supply 664MW of wafers to the Taiwanese solar-cell maker.

Rather than install racking systems to hold heavy glass-covered solar panels, the company's PowerFlex BIPV modules can be adhered onto a roof or built right into roofing materials. The modules are quicker to installer, lighter, and don't require any penetrations into the roof, according to the company.

Suntech Power China's largest maker of solar panels, said on Thursday that it has signed a deal to develop solar plants in South Africa with up to 100 megawatts in capacity.

Net revenues were $370.8 million, an increase of 10.1% sequentially and 147.2% year-over-year.

Applied Materials has forecast quarterly results that beat Wall Street estimates, with demand for its chip-making gear holding up despite fears of weakening technology spending. But the company warned that sales of solar and energy equipment would slide 10-20% this quarter.

Unlike traditional silicon-based solar cells, the film is composed of metal nanoparticles embedded in a transparent composite matrix, and operates on a different principle. EnSol is now developing the product with help from the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

LDK Solar is planning to build a solar manufacturing facility with 1 gigawatt of solar cell and 500 megawatts of solar module capacity. The manufacturing facility is expected to begin production in the second quarter of 2011, backed by US$368 million in financing for up to three years from a Chinese lender.