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Germany-based Solar Millennium AG, Erlangen has sold 50 percent of the stakes in its 50-megawatt (MW) parabolic trough solar thermal power plant – Ibersol – to Ferrostaal AG, Essen for an undisclosed amount. Located in the province of Extremadura, Spain, construction is expected to begin on the plant this autumn. It is hoped by spring 2013, it will be connected to the grid.

Nevada Solar Works LLC. has won a contract to install 1.3 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaics (PV) projects in the City of Reno, the U.S. The Reno City Council announced the contract, approving a one MW fixed tilt ground mount system at the Reno-Stead Water Treatment Plant, and 295 kW in fixed tilt roof and ground mount installations at five other locations throughout the city.

DuPont has announced production of polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) polymer resin – a “critical” raw material used to make the company’s Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride film – has begun at its Fayetteville Works facility in the U.S. The film is used for photovoltaics (PV) panel backsheets.

centrotherm photovoltaics AG, based in Germany, has signed several contracts for production systems and equipment in its solar cell business area with “well-known” Asian customers for undisclosed sums of money.

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.

Two 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). During the meeting, they described how a self-cleaning coating – based on technology developed for space missions to Mars – on the surface of solar cells could increase the efficiency of producing electricity from sunlight and reduce maintenance costs for large-scale solar installations.