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A new world record, confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), for large area silicon wafers has been set.

Clean Energy and Power (CEP), Inc. has acquired its first solar project in Europe. Located in the Czech Republic, work is scheduled to begin on the project this week and should be completed by the start of July. Meanwhile, the comapny has said it is looking to undertake bigger projects.

India has officially launched its largest – three megawatt (MW) – grid connected solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant.

The international pressure being placed on Spain’s government seems to be working. Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has vetoed the legislative proposal of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Miguel Sebastián, and ruled out subsequent cuts in the Spanish system of compensation for solar energy.

Following a meeting with solar industry representatives, it has been revealed that Spain will be reducing feed-in tariffs by 40 percent for all photovoltaic installations, including existing ones.

A team of University of Minnesota-led researchers has said it has cleared a “major hurdle” in the drive to build solar cells with potential efficiencies up to twice as high as current levels, which rarely exceed 30 percent. New solar cell designs are needed however.

LG Electronics (LG) has announced plans to significantly expand its solar business by investing USD$820 million (KRW one trillion) over the next five years toward its solar cell manufacturing facility in Gumi, southeast of Seoul.

A call for U.S. companies to develop a feasibility study for a 50 megawatt (MW) Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant in Lebanon has been made by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and Lebanon’s Zeenni’s Trading Agency, in light of continued energy shortages in the country.

A 30 percent reduction for photovoltaics applications would signal “the end”, according to Javier Anta, president of the Spanish photovoltaics association (ASIF). In an interview with pv magazine, he also said that current plant owners would be ruined. Furthermore, he stated that between 600 and 1,000 megawatts (MW) in Spain are currently “with a leaglly uncertain status”.

A ten-megawatt (MW) solar power plant is scheduled to be built in Dover, the U.S. The project is expected to create up to 150 jobs and construction should begin later this year.