In a move that has been anticipated for some months, Californian photovoltaic manufacturer SunPower has announced that it will purchase French solar company Tenesol SA from Total SA.

While the economic environment of falling prices and oversupply is pushing many photovoltaic manufacturers to the brink, a new major entrant to the market could present a whole new set of challenges to incumbent manufacturers.

Rounding off a year in which the search engine giant Google invested $880 million U.S. dollars in renewable energy, the company has announced a final investment for 2011 of $94 million. The money will go to four photovoltaic projects in California.

For the second time, an Australian state government safety review has found that non-compliant photovoltaic installations are posing a fire risk to some homes. The country’s Sustainable Energy Association has heavily criticized the review, which was carried out in the state of Western Australia (WA).

German manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies announced today that it supplied equipment for the new Avancis thin-film fab, which opened earlier this month.

Despite yesterday’s High Court ruling that the British Government’s slashing of the renewable feed-in tariff (FIT) was illegal, some parts of the renewable sector have said that it could be bad for the industry.

The dramatic struggle over the British Government’s dramatic feed-in tariff (FIT) cuts continued today, with the High Court ruling that they were illegal. The slashing of the FIT came into effect on December 12, 11 days before the official consultation period on the policy closed.

The PV Taskforce at the Roofting Center, located in Washington D.C., has released a draft report into photovoltaic roof racking. It attempts to bring the photovoltaic and roofing community together, in order to formulate criteria and recommendations as to the most effect roof racking for photovoltaic systems.

Some in the industry can be surprised when public or academic reports predict photovoltaics playing a small role in the world’s future energy mix, on the basis of cost. It is often repeated that the technology is just too expensive. But recent research from Queen’s University and Michigan Technological University has shown that the price of photovoltaics is often vastly overinflated in these studies.

Developments in thin-film module manufacturers and technology have provided a talking point as industry news winds down before Christmas.