Chris Whitmore

China has launched a trade probe into US subsidies for renewable energy and is contemplating filing a case with the World Trade Organisation. The probe is the latest episode in the rapidly escalating trade dispute between the two countries that was sparked off by an anti-dumping petition from a group of US manufacturers last month.

Algonquin Power has entered into a share purchase agreement with EffiSolar Energy to buy all the issued and outstanding shares in Cornwall Solar and its 110MW project pipeline.

Two more projects handed out under India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission are set to miss their financial completion deadline, according to Tarun Kapoor a secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Photon Energy is stepping up its efforts to break into the expanding Eastern European solar market by building Poland’s largest rooftop array. The 311kW system will be installed on a building owned by water utility Górno?l?skie Przedsi?biorstwo Wodoci?gów (GPW) in the city of in Ruda Slaska and is due to go live in mid-2012.

Google is shutting down its in-house CSP engineering project due to the rapidly falling cost of PV panels. The project, focused on bringing down the cost of heliostats and reducing water usage at CSP plants, was the centerpiece of the RE

It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Winston Churchill was referring to Russia, but his much-reused quote could just as easily apply to India’s nascent solar industry. Shrouded in secrecy, the state of play on the subcontinent is exciting as it is confusing.

An end-of-year surge in the number of utility-scale PV installation in China and India will result in installed capacity for 2011 in the Asia-Pacific region reaching 4.8GW, according to the new Asia Pacific Major PV Markets Quarterly report from NPD Solarbuzz.

Over the coming months the solar industry is set to experience its own version of natural selection, as surplus capacity and falling prices triggers a significant reduction of the number of companies in the marketplace, according to a new report from Bank Sarasin.

Hoku Materials has moved a step closer to completing its polysilicon production plant in Pocatello, Idaho by connecting it to Idaho Power's substation.

Activ Solar has completed Phase III of its Perovo Solar Power Station, adding a further 20MW to the system’s size. The total capacity of Perovo now stands at 60MW, and, with ramping up still ongoing, it looks set to be one of the largest PV projects in Europe.