Chinese battery manufacturer BYD, which is readying a line of all-electric vehicles, plans to introduce a home energy suite that includes solar panels and batteries.

Car maker Chery Automobile Co is keen to buy into the solar energy business of Taiwanese LCD panel maker AU Optronics,

Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved plans on Wednesday to grant 100 million euros in support for the solar power industry to overcome resistance in parliament to its plans to cut state-mandated incentives.

The sources said parliamentary experts in Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right administration agreed that so-called feed-in tariffs for new rooftop solar installations will be cut by 16 percent from July as planned. Most open-field installations will be cut by 15 percent, with support for farmland solar systems to be scrapped completely, the sources said.

China has overtaken the US for the first time in the race to invest in wind, solar and other sources of clean energy.

Flextronics has entered into an agreement to produce solar modules for Q-Cells. Flextronics said the deal positions it as the leading EMS player in the clean tech market.

Renewable energy investment may rise by 23% this year as government stimulus funds mainly in the US and Europe are spent wind turbines and solar panels.

First Solar has announced a power purchase agreement to supply Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) with renewable electricity from a 300 megawatt utility-scale photovoltaic solar power facility that First Solar is developing in Southern California.

Japan-based Mitsubishi Electric has announced it plans to almost triple production of solar cells in two years to meet demand for renewable energy. The company last month finished construction of a 24,000 square meter (258,000 square feet) plant in northern Japan that may begin operating this fall.

The contracts include a US$137 million follow-on order from a large Chinese customer, as well as orders from Tianwei New Energy, Phoenix Photovoltaic Technology, Yingli Green Energy, JA Solar, Taiwan-based Sino-American Silicon Products (SAS), and one other customer.

If the bearish options traders are right, First Solar should soon slip below the century mark. A pair of analyst downgrades and price decline of as much as 7%, to US$106.30, fueled bearish options activity on the manufacturer of solar modules. First Solar was cut to underperform from neutral and given a 12-month target share price of US$90 at Wedbush.

The potential impact of lesser subsidies has been an anchor on First Solar in recent sessions, after the company said last week that such cuts could pressure earnings in the second half of 2010.

First Solar has posted a higher-than-expected profit, but its shares fell as its outlook disappointed and profit margins narrowed.

The prototype solar cells demonstrated a power-conversion efficiency of 9.6%, a 40% gain in efficiency from solar cells built by others using the same or similar widely available materials, said David Mitzi, who leads the research team at IBM Research.

Sharp's solar business is on track to turn its first annual profit as the company looks to expand production and forge partnerships with corporations worldwide to expand the use of solar power generation.

A homeowner could earn up to 900 pounds (US$1,433) each year for a typical 2.5 kilowatt solar PV system and save an additional 140 pounds on their annual electricity bill, according to an announcement by the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Under the terms of the agreement, government officials said Samsung must build four manufacturing plants in Ontario, promising 16,000 direct and indirect jobs over the next five years.

Micron Technology has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Australia-based integrated energy company Origin Energy focused on the development of PV (photovoltaic) technology.

China was fast with its stimulus program...even though the country has been climbing nicely out of recession, the government still plans to spend the full US$600 billion of stimulus money.

First Solar has forecast 2010 profits of US$6.05-6.85 per share on revenues of US$2.7-2.9 billion. The Company said it plans to invest US$365 million of capital to add two production plants, consisting of four manufacturing lines each, to meet a demand pool.

First Solar has manufactured and shipped more than 1-gigawatt (GW) of its photovoltaic (PV) solar modules in 2009, becoming the first PV company to attain this production volume in a single year, according to the company.

The sector's recovery depends on what happens at the global climate change summit taking place in Copenhagen and incentives for the renewable resource in China, according to Mark Pinto, CTO and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions group.

The fall in cost is due to the increased lifetime, according to the independent EU Energy Institute.

DuPont Apollo has announced the opening of its silicon based thin-film photovoltaic module manufacturing facility. The 538,000-square-feet facility will have an annual capacity of up to 50 megawatts with a thin-film-on-glass PV module production line. Full-scale commercial production is slated for the first quarter of 2010.

Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures-backed solar-thermal startup Ausra is in talks with three potential buyers to sell itself, according to sources familiar with the company.

Price pressure, caused by overcapacities in the worldwide solar panel business are exerting pressure on the solar panel value chain.