SOLAR

Solar power makers will get a boost in California, already their largest U.S. market, as it sharpens its focus on small-scale projects as part of efforts to get a third of its power from renewable energy.

Tucson Electric Power, a unit of UniSource Energy Corp, agreed to buy power from two solar energy systems to be built in Arizona that would generate enough electricity for more than 6,000 homes, the company said in a release late Wednesday.

A solar-powered house built by a group of Texas students offers a blueprint for recession-hit U.S. families to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and their electricity bills without busting their budget.

Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.

Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.

Global demand for solar power has improved substantially in the last month, led by top solar market Germany, Suntech Power Holding Co Ltd Chief Strategy Officer Steven Chan said on Tuesday.

China's export-dependent solar panel makers are seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel after a difficult year fighting a global credit squeeze and a spate of project delays, a senior industry executive said.

California solar company Solyndra Inc said on Friday that it started construction on its second solar panel manufacturing plant, putting into action the first loan guarantee awarded under a long-delayed U.S. program for advanced clean energy.

German solar firms Conergy and Solarworld have voiced strong concern about the pricing practices of Chinese panel makers -- who undercut their German peers' products by around 20 percent. Chinese modules sell in Europe at about 1.70 euros per watt, according to a UBS report.

A New York court has partly denied motions by polysilicon maker MEMC (WFR.N) against Conergy (CGYG.DE), a small victory for the German solar group in the two companies' ongoing legal battle.

Straw fences and tin roofs: the homes in Pritomoddi village are typical of millions of others across rural Bangladesh, except for one thing: the shiny solar panels that provide electricity, all the time.

Shares in solar power companies fell on Thursday, led by a 14-percent drop in LDK Solar Co Ltd, which posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.

Solar cell manufacturing capacity will grow 56 percent in 2009 despite weakened demand for renewable energy projects in the face of tight credit markets and a global economic recession, a report issued on Monday by research group DisplaySearch said.

Hong Kong's power plant operator GCL-Poly Energy Holdings will invest about $200 million to build a solar wafer plant in the Chinese city of Xuzhou, banking on a recovery in polysilicon prices and robust demand from China.

Investors are banking on fresh government incentives in the United States and China to help pull the solar sector out of its slump, but it will be next year before demand from those markets even begins to make a dent in the global glut of solar panels.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc unit PSE&G can spend $515 million of ratepayer money for 80 megawatts of solar power projects, New Jersey utility regulators ruled on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Wednesday an investment of up to $11.8 million for five projects to develop the integration of solar technologies into the U.S. electrical grid.

India will unveil its first solar power target as soon as September, pledging to boost output from near zero to 20 gigawatts (GW) by 2020 as it firms up its national plan to fight global warming, draft documents show.

German solar bellwether SolarWorld on Monday kept its 2009 sales outlook, helping European solar stocks gain, as it said cost savings had helped it offset most effects of the sector's ongoing price slump.

European solar cell and module makers may be forced to speed up shifting production to Asia, rattled by rapid price declines and falling market shares.