Editors’ Blog

23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition held in Valencia, Spain last week was one of the best events I have attended in over 15 years of attending trade shows in most parts of the world.

It is a tale of two strategies when dealing with the U.S. solarmarkets, be they consumer or business markets. Both Akeena Solar andFirst Solar have announced their first quarter financial resultsrecently. The scale of each company is worlds apart and theirapproaches to a growing market segment are at polar opposites, and itshows. These two companies cannot be directly compared; using these twocompanies is purely to highlight a growing trend among many solarcompanies of focussing on certain end-user segments of the solar market.

Applied Materials can't seem to leave the solar equipment business alone at the moment, as it continues its acquisition trail. The latest is Baccini S.p.A for a cool $330 million in greenbacks.

As rumors go, this is not as far-fetched as it seems!

An old automotive saying that well-built vehicles by Ford Motor Co.keep on going many years after competitors’ models have been scrappedcan now be applied to old Ford assembly plants!