Neo Solar Power Corp. has started building a NT$30 billion (USD$937 million) solar cell manufacturing plant in Tainan, Taiwan, according to Bloomberg.

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.

Premier Power Renewable Energy, Inc., REgeneration Finance, LLC. and the Douglas County School District, which serves over 56,000 students, have announced the development of three megawatts (MW) of solar electric power generating projects at 31 different sites – 30 schools and one athletic stadium – in Douglas County, Colorado, the U.S.

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.

Germany-based SMA Solar Technology AG has received certification from Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for its transformerless inverters. This, says the company, is a world first for transformerless inverters and means that it can distribute them in the U.S. market for the first time.

Research scientists from Boston University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have presented their findings on self-dusting solar panels to the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Multi-crystalline solar wafer manufacturer, LDK Solar Co Ltd, has started construction on a 1.5-gigawatt (GW) solar cell and module facility in Hefei, China, according to China Business News. It says that the project is worth around RMB 2.5 billion.

SunEdison has installed a 296 kW rooftop mounted photovoltaics (PV) system in San Diego, the U.S. as part of AT&T’s national solar initiative. San Diego Mayor, Jerry Sanders, officially switched the system on yesterday. Additionally, AT&T outlined five other Californian solar contracts it has with SunEdison, which, including the San Diego system, are expected to see around two megawatts (MW) of PV capacity installed by the second quarter of next year.

Solar microinverters and DC-DC power optimizers are forecast to generate more than USD$1.5 billion in revenues over the next five years, according to IMS Research. It says that shipments of the devices are forecast to grow over 100 percent per year and will total more than 16 million in the same period.

After years of speculation and waiting, it seems South Africa is set to receive its first renewable energy feed-in tariff (Refit) for solar PV by the end of the year. Representing one of the “biggest shifts in South Africa (SA) in the last few years”, Ryan Hammond director of Solairedirect Southern Africa tells pv magazine that following its successful implementation, he is confident it won’t be long before grid parity is reached. However, he said the proposed incentives could prove to be too attractive.