The French Ministry of Economy, Industry and Employment has announced it will be cutting all feed-in-tariffs (FITs) for new photovoltaics (PV) installations by 12 percent from September 1. Small residential PV systems, with a maximum capacity of three megawatts (MW) or less is the only category not to be affected.

AU Optronics Corp. says it has completed the carbon footprint verification on a multi-crystalline PV module, according to the international carbon footprint standard PAS2050*. EcoDuo PM220P00 is the world’s first PV module to have obtained carbon footprint verification, states the company, thus helping to reach a critical milestone on carbon footprint management of PV key components.

Ohio’s largest operating solar installation has been officially opened by Governor Ted Strickland. The 12-megawatt (MW) PSEG Wyandot Solar Farm, in Wyandot County, Ohio, the U.S. is comprised of more than 159,000 ground-mounted solar panels and is spread across 80 acres of land. It is owned by the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) Solar Source.

Professor Martin Green, executive research director of Australia’s ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence at the University of NSW, has been presented with this year’s AUD$10,000 CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science.

S.A.G. Solarstrom AG has told pv magazine in a telephone conference that it is planning to expand its international operations, following strong foreign sales for the first half of the year.

Fort Recovery Construction & Equipment LLC has announced it is planning a USD$1.9 million expansion at its SolarAg division in Portland, the U.S. Under the plans, the company’s 60,000 square-foot facility for research, development and production of solar thermal collector panels will be renovated. It added that it expects to create up to 120 jobs by 2013.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd has said that due to “booming” demand, it will expand its crystalline silicon solar cell production capacity from 1.4 gigawatts (GW) to 1.8 GW by the end of the year. The company has also increased this year’s shipment target from 1.3 GW to 1.5 GW, which is “more than double total shipments for 2009”. The news comes as it announces its second quarter (Q2) results. ?

The largest single major polysilicon production facility in Taiwan is underway following a deal between Germany-based centrotherm photovoltaics AG and Taiwan PolySilicon Corp. (TPSI). With an annual capacity of 5,000 tons, and an upgrade option of 8,000 tons, centrotherm’s subsidiary, centrotherm SiTec designed the facility.

Solar inverter shipments reached 4.9 gigawatts (GW) in the second quarter of this year (Q2), says IMS Research, growing by 284 percent. More than half of these shipments were for installations in Germany, which grew by 388 percent in Q2 says the company. Consequently, total shipments hit more than eight GW for the first six months of the year – a three-fold increase over the same period last year.

Sky Solar Holdings Co., Ltd, and Sinoma International Engineering Co., Ltd, a cement engineering system integration service provider, have joined hands to establish a new photovoltaics (PV) company in Beijing, China.