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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Solyndra cited the falling world price of solar panels as the reason for closing down the firm.
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.
First Solar, one of the biggest panel makers in the world and by far the biggest producer of thin-film solar panels announced today it is acquiring development projects from Edison Mission Group, a subsidiary of Edison International.
Q-Cells ( QCLSF - news - people ), the world's largest maker of solar cells, beat first-quarter profit expectations but lowered its 2009 profit forecast for the third time since December.
To hear the environmental stalwarts tell the story of the future, natural gas is supposed to be our bridge fuel to a bright new world of renewable energy, with solar panels on every roof and windmills in every town.
People in a much larger region of the world can anticipate seeing a partial solar eclipse, in which the moon blocks only a fraction of the sun's disk.
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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Lastly, the week saw the unveiling of the world's first fiber-optic solar cell, which is thinner than the width of a human hair and could pave the way to creating energy-producing clothes.
Of course, this is also made possible by the glut of solar panels flooding world markets.
Spain, blinded by visions of a solar future, subsidised the industry so lavishly that in 2008 the country accounted for two-fifths of the world's new solar-power installations by wattage.
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.
Japan's factories play a significant role in global production, churning out a fifth of the world's semiconductors and large shares of advanced machine tools and solar panels.
The majority of the top 10 solar panel makers in the world produce silicon panels, and six of them have most of their manufacturing plants in China.
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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.
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.
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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As a result, the world will likely see 35 gigawatts of excess solar panels for sale per year over the three years, GTM said.
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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.
This week Inhabitat reported live from the scene of the Solar Decathlon in Madrid as 17 stunning solar-powered houses competed for the title of the world's most energy-efficient prefabricated house.
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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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Knies is hopeful that soon the world will embrace solar power as the leading source of energy.
These prices surely stimulated the market, resulting in Spain installing more solar than the entire rest of world in the boom days in 2007-2008.
The rest of the world would then be able to join the poor of Africa and the rich of California, and generate solar power for itself.
Less than 1% of the installed solar photovoltaic capacity in the world is based on Cigs.
China is now the leading producer of solar cells and wind turbines in the world.
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More than half of all the solar-panels in the world are now in Germany.
If it were a stand-alone company, it would be one of the biggest solar panel makers in the world.
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