Markets

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a new report last week on how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is investing USD$100 billion in scientific research and advances in technology. The report, ‘The Recovery Act: Transforming the American Economy through Innovation’, highlights that this is to jumpstart the renewable energy sector.

According to U.K. energy regulator, Ofgem, 2,257 British homes in August have been fitted with solar panels. This is a jump from 1,700 in July and 1,400 in June, reports BBC News.

Photovoltaics (PV) project developers must create their own formulas for tackling a fragmented market – and they have to do it while dealing with the fast-paced changes in technologies and polices. That was the sentiment expressed by a panel discussion held in the U.S. last week, which was organized, in part, by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Trina Solar.

Germany-based juwi Solar has said it will create 500 new jobs until 2012. Almost half of them will be located in Germany, which is currently the company’s “most important” market.

Greece’s Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change has signed two new Ministerial Decisions, which have helped to “satisfy some of the photovoltaics (PV) sector’s demands regarding the uplift of certain legal-administrative barriers”, according to PV Legal.

Three key states will account for 48 percent of the U.S.’s total photovoltaics (PV) market, according to a new report issued by EuPD Research. Aimed at helping the industry understand the downstream PV market, it added that Arizona “could evolve into one of the most important markets in the coming years”.

Aggressive government incentives are set to trigger “booming” growth in solar installations in Ontario, Canada, this year, but regulations requiring the use of locally sourced photovoltaics (PV) products will cause the expansion to slow dramatically next year, according to market research firm iSuppli Corp.

First Solar may be looking to takeover SMA Solar Technology AG after saying it would be willing to purchase each SMA share for €110, according to several brokers. Following this, SMA’s shares significantly rose by around five percent today to almost €85 on the German TecDAX stock index.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued a proposed decision to launch a new next-generation feed-in tariff (FIT) program, designed to drive mid-sized renewable energy development. This will require investor-owned Californian utilities to purchase electricity from renewable energy systems between one and 20 megawatts (MW) in size.

The Czech government has approved a renewable energy framework plan aimed at curbing the kind of subsidies that have led to a solar boom that ranks as Europe’s third largest, reports Reuters.