Markets

AU Optronics has said it will market its solar products under the brand name BenQ Solar. The move is in line with its “Global Operation, Local Delivery” business strategy.

Just months after suspending its manufacturing operations and announcing significant job cuts, Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) and a number of its subsidiaries, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A new research project at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), is aiming to get photovoltaics applied in brave new ways and many more places. The project, at the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Low-Carbon Living at UNSW, will focus on a range of techniques, applications and potential impediments relating to photovoltaic technology.

Having released his Fiscal Year 2013 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) budget request to Congress, President Barack Obama has requested US$2.27 billion be set aside from a total of $27.2 billion for the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).

In a political pile-on, it is a rarity when only rumors, and egos, get quashed. However, following months of allegations by Republican Congressional leaders that U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loans had been granted recklessly, in a backroom bargaining process, a 60-day independent audit of the DOE loan portfolio released on February 10 found that no excessive risks had been taken on President Barack Obama’s watch.

It appears likely that the Italian government will remove the retroactive action from its Decreto Monti. While the decision means that incentives shall still be halted for photovoltaic systems larger than one megawatt (MW) on agricultural land, the deadline by which such systems must fulfill the feed-in tariff (FIT) requirements, will be moved back to March.

A three-year multilateral and multinational research project has been launched, aimed at bringing efficiency, output and utilization gains right across the photovoltaic system. From cell to smart grid, the ERG project will involve research and development businesses, and bodies from eight European countries.

In light of increased financing costs and major European photovoltaic markets facing an uncertain immediate future, S.A.G. Solarstrom AG has today reported that earnings are down for 2011.

New research from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. is developing a method by which more of sun’s spectrum can be harnessed by a photovoltaic cell. In theory, the hybrid semiconductor method could push through the theoretical efficiency barrier limiting silicon solar cells.

The Germany solar incentive debate continues. While it was announced last week that there are plans to introduce a feed-in tariff (FIT) cap on photovoltaic modules, yet another proposal has suggested that only 80 percent of fed-in solar electricity should receive a tariff.