The east Asian nation has stepped into the solar world with the 50 MW Minbu facility – planned to eventually reach 170 MW – reportedly beating other previously announced projects to grid connection.

The extraordinary statement, made on Sunday by the emirate’s electricity and water authority, compares current per capita figures to a ‘business as usual’ scenario.

The Arizona-based equipment maker is sticking to its guns by withdrawing from the PV market after sales wobbled in China last year. With most of the big players having rediscovered their thirst for expansion, however, it appears a curious strategy.

The Chinese lithium-ion battery producer has taken significant stakes in two U.K. entities associated with a mine which could hold up to 8.8 million tons of the raw material in clay deposits.

The world’s biggest solar park is reportedly up and running.

The Shanghai-based wafer, cell and module maker appears to be steering a steady course through a tumultuous period for the solar industry and its plans are another sign high-efficiency modules may soon have to do more to earn that label.

The heavily indebted poly manufacturer and project developer will receive an immediate $50 million fillip from the sale of an 80 MW solar project but will then have to pay back $76 million over ten years.

The Shanghai company’s decision to go forward as a pure play developer puts it at odds with its peers and the diminishing margins reported in its Q1 figures illustrate why it may prove to be a high-stakes gamble to bet against manufacturing.

Stockholders in the Guangdong-based business – one the highest profile victims of Beijing’s 5/31 policy about-turn to date – were yesterday due to learn when a crucial vote on a state-sponsored Chinese bail-out of the company will take place. Publication has now been postponed until August.

The polysilicon giant’s Jiangsu Zhongneng unit invested $196 million into a $487 million fund alongside public partners to promote clean energy manufacturing in the Chinese city. A stake sale in the Xinjiang GCL subsidiary, if approved by shareholders, will more than recoup the group’s outlay.