As New Jersey struggles to rebuild after the Frankenstorm that hit America’s East Coast during early November, a key part of the comeback plan for many home owners and housing developments will be installing back-up solar generation, either grid-tied or off-grid, which can provide power during future major outages. That means California had better look to its laurels as the number-one state in 2Q 2012 in terms of installed solar capacity, with a current total of 217 MW.

Solea Renewables has completed and commissioned a 1 MW ground-mounted diesel/photovoltaic hybrid electric power plant for industrial mining applications in South Africa.

The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions (CEMS) at the Indian School of Business (ISB) have released findings from two studies that show high interest rates and relatively short term loans make renewable energy projects in India more expensive than in the U.S. and Europe.

Avelar Solar Technology, a subsidiary of the Swiss Avelar Energy Group, plans to establish a solar power plant in the Russian Orenburg region with the capacity of 25 MW, according to the company, which has already signed an investment agreement with the Ministry of Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade of the Orenburg region.

A new website has been launched providing a unique insight into Germany’s transition from thermal electricity generation to renewables. German Energy Transition provides the first “one stop shop” providing the facts behind and vision towards German’s world-leading energy revolution.

Manz AG is cutting 62 jobs in its solar division. The German production locations affected are in Reutlingen, Tübingen and Karlstein, said the photovoltaic equipment supplier in a release earlier this week.

British renewables developer Blue Energy has today announced plans to build one of the world’s largest photovoltaic plants in Ghana.

The latest 24 schools to benefit from solar facilities provided by Coca Cola’s Yen 2.5 billion (US$30.4 million) Japan Reconstruction Fund have been selected.

Chinese solar module manufacturer Phono Solar has launched what it claims is Japan’s first natural disaster insurance cover for solar installations.

With commentators questioning the appropriateness of staging the latest UN Climate Change Conference in the capital of Qatar – a country with one of the world’s highest levels of GHG emissions per capita – plans have been unveiled for the country’s first solar power plant.