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First Solar’s subsidiary Topaz Solar Farms has reached an agreement with North County Watch and Carrizo Commons to dismiss their lawsuit against the 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm project that First Solar is developing in San Luis Obispo County.

Speaking after PV Taiwan’s pre-show press conference, Sam Hong, Taiwan Photovoltaic Industry Association chairman and Neo Solar’s president and COO told pv magazine that a photovoltaic technology war is starting. And, while the rain may be coming down in Taipei, solar prospects in Taiwan are bright, according to many of the industry’s leaders.

Qatar Solar Technologies has announced today that it will build a polysilicon facility worth US$1 billion in Ras Laffan Industrial City, north of Doha. The site is to occupy 1.2 million square meters of land in Ras Laffan.

The off-grid market is also currently profiting from the declining module and system prices in the ongrid segment. Yet in many developing countries, particularly in southern Africa, both the industry and policy makers are challenged to make photovoltaic technology more attractive and to develop transparent markets. This was an important message sent out by an off-grid workshop to which the wholesale dealer Phaesun extended invitations on the occasion of its tenth corporate anniversary on the weekend.

Thin film solar technology is confirming its place as a booming market, with new figures suggesting that it will grow to make $44 billion worldwide by 2017.

Solar cell and module manufacturers will have to cooperate more closely with machinery and systems manufacturers. This was one of the central demands made at a meeting of Solarinput that brought all of the participants together in Germany’s Erfurt.

A new high-performance, flexible copper nanowire, first developed at Duke University in the U.S. last year and now being commercialized at a spin-off company called NanoForge Corporation, may drive down the cost of solar cell production.

Cupertino Electric, Inc. has completed two ground-mount photovoltaic projects worth 35 megawatts (MW) in Central California.

A packed room, interactive sessions and presentations that gave food for thought. The Solarpraxis workshop ‘Quality for Photovoltaics: the key driver for sustainable growth’ came to a successful conclusion yesterday. Bankability, testing measures and installation errors were the key topics discussed.

ABB has established a 400 megawatt (MW) solar inverter production line in Jüri, Estonia. The company has also opened an engineering center there, and invested in a solar plant.