In order to reduce the cost of energy in the country and also of imports of solar panel devices, Mozambique is to start its own production of solar panels to capture and transform solar energy into electric power.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has said it will be supplying Azure Power, an Indian, independent solar power producer, with several megawatts of solar panels under a new partnership, in order to develop utility-scale solar projects across various states in India.

Astronergy (also known as Chint Solar) has announced that its parent company, the Chint Group, has officially signed a strategic cooperative framework agreement with the Gansu Development and Reform Commission, where it will invest in one gigawatt (GW) of solar energy projects and in 200 megawatts (MW) of manufacturing capabilities. This agreement marks the official launch of the province’s push to develop its solar industry.

Germany-based Q-Cells SE is to offer a professorship at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, in Halle, starting in its 2010/2011 winter term in a bid to educate graduates beginning their careers about the opportunities available in the photovoltaics (PV) industry. With both activities, the company says it is underscoring its commitment to Germany as a research location.

Hanwha Chemical Corporation, based in Korea, has bought around USD$78 million worth of shares in China-based Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. under a new strategic agreement between the two companies. In addition, it has entered into separate agreements to acquire shares from Good Energies II LP and Yonghua Solar Power Investment Holding Ltd. As a result, it now owns 49.99 percent of Solarfun’s outstanding shares and holds a 49.99 percent voting interest in the company.

Saudi Arabia will export as much solar energy as it does petrol today, according to the country’s Minister for Petrol and Raw Materials Ali Al-Naimi, who was speaking at a one-day Saudi-German solar conference, held today in Magdeburg, Germany.

The U.K. photovoltaics (PV) market could be artificially restrained by its government, after attaching certain conditions to its payment of remuneration, says market research institute, EuPD Research.

Recurrent Energy has secured around USD$18 million for its five-megawatt (MW) solar power system, located at the Sunset Reservoir in San Francisco, the U.S. When completed, the company says the project will be one of the country’s largest municipal solar power systems and will more than triple San Francisco’s total municipal solar energy output.

pv magazine has learned from Professor Martin Green that Australia’s University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence will not be closing its doors, despite losing financial support from the ARC Centre of Excellence program from the end of this year.

Electricity generated from new photovoltaics (PV) installations is now cheaper than electricity from proposed new nuclear plants, in what has been dubbed a historic crossover.