China rejects these claims, arguing that firms such as Solar World benefit from U.S. subsidies.
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On Monday, solar cell makers Q-Cells SE and Solar World gained 8.5% and 8.8%, while wind turbine maker Nordex advanced 13.3%.
First Solar is by far the world leader in thin film panel production and it is the most valuable solar company in the world.
From there on the solar manufacturing world began to crumble and, along the way, we saw the demise of high-profile U.S. startups such as Solyndra and Abound Solar and the bankruptcies of long-time players such as Q-Cells in Germany.
In other solar news, the Westmill Solar Cooperative launched the world's largest community-owned solar project in the UK, a group of African teenagers developed a pee-powered energy generator and Tunisian company Saphon Energy unveiled a new bladeless, bird-friendly wind turbine.
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Of course, this is also made possible by the glut of solar panels flooding world markets.
Indeed, it is still not clear how the ongoing anti-dumping sentiment in world solar component trade will mean for Africa.
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In other words, when the oil runs out, which it eventually will, Abu Dhabi wants to be ready to sell the world solar or wind or whatever renewable technologies will be needed to supply people's energy needs.
Demand for renewable energy has been held back in emerging economies like Ghana by high costs, but a recent glut of solar panels on world markets has seen prices tumble - much to the advantage of African countries.
SunPower has the proven technology and experience building solar power plants around the world to deliver a well-designed solar project that will be a major contributor to helping California meet its ambitious renewable portfolio standard by the end of the decade.
Just recently, China became home to the world's largest private solar research facility, and the world's fastest computer.
Europe has similarly daft subsidy regimes with equally perverse consequences the German subsidy for solar energy, for instance, which has diverted the world's solar-cell production to sun-free Germany, thus raising the price in sunny countries where it might be usefully employed.
In solar news, Morocco is on its way to becoming a world-class solar energy producer, as the country recently announced plans to harvest 14 percent of its energy from the sun by 2020.
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Sometime in the next five to ten years, solar fans predict, the cost curves of solar and fossil fuel generation will cross in most parts of the world, and solar will sell itself to consumers without a subsidy.
At the same time, Beijing wants to cut back rare earth exports to the rest of the world, instead encouraging domestic production into wind and solar products for export around the world.
The U.S. is one of the fast-growing solar energy markets in the world, thanks in part to the generous federal tax benefits, loans and grants to support solar technology development and deployment.
Now R??ter's Conergy AG, in Hamburg, is the second-largest solar company in the world by revenue.
First Solar was the second largest manufacturer of solar cells in the world in 2010.
China's Suntech, which was founded in 2001, is the third-largest manufacturer of solar cells in the world.
And like it or not, the Sun Belt has the cheapest solar energy in the world in vast quantities.
The project, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, when completed in 2013 will supposedly be the largest solar project in the world.
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As for solar, he says that the fundamentals for the long-term are good, with significant additions of solar installations around the world continuing.
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With more than 300 days of sunshine every year, Arizona and the neighboring states straddle some of the best areas in the world for solar power.
The first is Abengoa Solar, a company that has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States.
Take Sharp, which since 2000 has led the world in solar panels sold (it dropped to No. 2 last year in the midst of a silicon raw-material shortage).
Enphase Energy has made a mark in the world of solar by developing small scale inverters called microinverters that make installation easier and improve the performance of rooftop solar panels.
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The target for AQT and most CIGS makers is First Solar, which has become the largest solar company in the world selling its thin film modules made out of cadmium and telluride.
The company last year unfurled an ambitious plan to become a leader in the field and even stated a goal of becoming the largest solar producer in the world by 2015 from a current base of effectively zero.
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But there are other companies like British Petroleum, which is now the largest solar company in the world, which is betting on alternatives to energy being part of our energy future and is putting real dollars and real energy behind it.
Solar power is also having a moment in the sun as MIT unveiled the world's first solar cells printed on paper - we can't wait to see a post-it version that we can stick to our walls!
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