Markets & Policy

EU member states voted to accept the EU-China trade deal announced by commissioner Karel de Gucht last weekend. An EU press spokesman said no member state had voted against the agreement.

Solar played its part in U.S. energy company NextEra’s profits from April to June but wind is still the company’s favored renewable and the year on year six-month figures were less encouraging.

The European solar trade bodies so vociferous in their criticism of the EU-China trade deal proposals earlier this week have had nothing to say after the announcement that EU heads of government adopted the agreement.

Munich solar manufacturer CentroSolar has little to cheer from its second quarter figures but the auditing of its 2012 accounts has cleared the way for September’s critical debt to equity swap.

Japanese giants see their balance sheets boosted by the domestic solar boom. In response, Sharp announces plan to widen its solar product range and expand its development business.

The U.S.’ second biggest solar manufacturer returned to profitability in the second quarter. Operating at full capacity, the company is weighing a fab expansion to meet growing global demand, particularly from Japan.

Clean energy supporters are assailing a plan by utility group Xcel Energy to better define the value of net metering in Colorado, which the company says would make the incentive “clear and transparent.”

The companies say they are collaborating in China “to improve the power output, quality and reliability of solar energy systems to meet the world’s growing energy needs.”

Global installations of residential PV storage systems will grow to 2.5 GW by 2017, according to a new report by research group IHS, which finds that Germany’s energy storage subsidy has kickstarted the surge.

Researchers in Germany have made a breakthrough with the development of a cost-effective and efficient solar fuel device that can store nearly 5% of solar energy in the form of hydrogen.