If module manufacturers and photovoltaic equipment suppliers were looking to the U.S. for markets to compensate for weak European demand, they may be set to be disappointed, a new report has warned.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has sent a stark warning to the international community regarding the world’s energy future.

Suspensions or cancellations in photovoltaic manufacturing capacity expansions or new plant builds are hitting equipment suppliers hard, in a new analysis from Solarbuzz.

Just days after helping the historic carbon tax to pass the Senate of the Australian Parliament, the Australian Green party has said it believes a goal of 100 percent renewables can be realized within a decade.

While there’s a bit of doom and gloom surrounding parts of the photovoltaic industry at present, some areas are generating considerable excitement. One of them is where Berlin-based startup Changers is aiming at: the intersection of photovoltaics, technology and social media.

While acknowledging that cost reductions are key and capacity expansion plans are to be put on hold in the current environment, Chinese polysilicon module manufacturer, Suntech has announced a 13 percent gross margin for the third quarter (Q3) of 2011. It has also said that redundancies have been made.

U.S. President Barak Obama has dipped into the debate surrounding the SolarWorld-sponsored “trade case” it, along with an unnamed coalition of U.S. manufacturers, has filed against Chinese manufacturers.

Thin-film module manufacturer First Solar has inaugurated today its second plant (FF02) at its Frankfurt (Oder) site in Germany’s east. The plant will have a capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) a year, bringing the company’s capacity at the site to 500 MW.

Just days after the halving of photovoltaic feed-in tariff (FIT) rates was announced by the U.K. Government, an installer has reported a rush on modules meaning that orders cannot be completed before the six-week FIT cutoff date.

In the wake of the leaked-and-then-announced U.K. photovoltaic feed-in tariff (FIT) cuts, one installer says that it is the timeframe not the level of cuts that presents a problem for the industry.