As the largest Canadian province of Ontario heads towards elections, on October 6, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) has launched an advertising campaign in an attempt to sway voters in favor of candidates who support renewable energy, including photovoltaics.

The decision by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support failed thin film manufacturer Solyndra with a half-billion dollar loan guarantee is being closely examined in congressional hearings.

For the first time, photovoltaic industry leaders have come together at a EU PVSEC conference to discuss future business models.

PV Legal’s guidelines for the reduction of bureaucratic barriers and administrative costs in terms of photovoltaic deployment have been released at the 26th EU PVSEC conference, currently underway in Hamburg, Germany.

For the first time in three years, small communities in the Tsumkwe municipality of northern Namibia can enjoy around-the-clock power after the installation of one of Africda’s largest off-grid photovoltaic systems.

German crystalline photovoltaic technology and equipment supplier Roth & Rau has achieved 20 percent efficiency with its 156mm industrial monocrystalline silicon wafers.

The quarterly America-China renewable market review, produced by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA), has found residential photovoltaic lease schemes driving renewable growth in the U.S.

High-tech engineering firm Manz believes it has achieved world-record aperture efficiency in one its Copper-Indium-Gallium-(di)Selenide (CIGS) thin-film modules, produced using commercial-scale production techniques. The 600x1200mm module achieved efficiency of 15.1 percent and has an output of 100 watts.

MS Solar Solutions Corp. (MSSS) and Main Street Power Company Inc. today launched the “Solar for All” residential photovoltaic program, which will provide systems for low-income householders in California.

While details of the scheme are pending, photovoltaics looks set to receive a major boost in Japan with a renewable energy bill passing through the upper house of parliament today. Analysts Jefferies predict solar to be the big winner under the scheme and said that the law, “will become an eventual feed-in tariff (FIT).”