Silicor Materials is striving to demonstrate that its low-cost PV silicon production process should help boost efficiency records in the near future. The company performed its own attempt at producing a mono PERC cell with greater efficiency, and hit a 20% level on the first try, company officials say.

In an atmosphere where U.S.-based solar module manufacturers are dropping like flies, it’s nice to see one ramping up production to meet ever-increasing demand for U.S.-made modules.

Underwriters Laboratories certified the product last week, which should allow Elon Musk to keep his promise to roll the product out this summer.

The U.S. International Trade Commission has informed the WTO that it is moving forward with its investigation into whether Suniva and SolarWorld deserve “global safeguard” protection from their competitors.

Deal sees the U.S. microinverter specialist license its marketing, sales and manufacturing rights to Flextronics, one of the world’s largest global electronics manufacturers and a longstanding partner of Enphase.

Four research partners have won a contract from the Army Research Laboratory’s Army Research Office to develop flexible, more powerful solar modules to provide soldiers in the field reliable electricity.

A new report commissioned by Advanced Energy Economy disproves a number of myths about U.S. grids and electricity markets.

With the third party solar company’s arrival, the big three residential installers have all lined up for a share of the state’s market.

A team of researchers from Rice University in Houston, Texas has developed a new method for using solar power to desalinate sea water. Part of a federally funded research effort into water treatment , the team has developed a system utilizing a combination of membrane distillation and nanophotonics to turn salt water into fresh drinking water.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new semiconductor alloy that can capture near-infrared light in the leading edge of the visible light spectrum. This could be a major step forward in the development of concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology.

The latest long-term forecast from analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) predicts solar energy costs to drop a further 66% by 2040, and onshore wind by 47%. Given these predictions, BNEF expect that renewables will undercut the majority of fossil based generation by 2030, even in India and China.

The two organizations are pushing for the role of utilities to be more of an impartial integrator and market enabler for third-party solutions, as the state plans the integration of more renewables.