Credit Crisis Shakes Up Solar Land Rush
All the sunniest spots in the California desert are already leased by potential solar developers, but the credit crunch could force firms to give up their claims and bigger solar players are laying in wait.

NATIONAL NEWS
Homes and Businesses Go Solar With No Upfront Cost
Renewable Funding is now providing a first-in-the-nation financial service allowing property owners to install solar panels and pay for them over 20 years through a voluntary line item on their property tax bills.

Connecticut Rolls Out New Cleantech Fund
A $9 million fund has been launched to make investments in seed and early-stage companies, focusing on renewable energy, energy efficiency, environmental remediation and clean water.

Unirac Provides Solar Mounting Solutions to Enxco Installation
Unirac Inc., a manufacturer of solar photovoltaic mounting solutions, has partnered with EnXco Inc. to supply a laminate RapidRac commercial flat-roof solution for a 1.8 MW solar array.

UTILITY INDUSTRY & REGULATORY NEWS
Google Joins Smart Grid Group
Google said this morning that it had joined Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition, suggesting that the search engine giant is increasingly looking into managing energy information.

FINANCIAL NEWS & MARKETS
Solaria Seeks $100M for Solar in Stripes
Silicon solar startup Solaria is looking to more than double its funding with a new $100 million financing round, CEO Suvi Sharma confirmed with us today, and first reported by VentureWire.

Q-Cells Publishes Results to September 30, 2008
Production increased for the first 9 months increased by 63 % to 417.0 Megawatt peak (MWp). Production in Q3 was 153.5 MWp, slightly up on Q2.

Ersol Presents Nine Month Results 2008
In the first 9 months of the year, ersol increased its consolidated revenue to 214.M. This corresponds to an increase of 101.5%.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
The Renewable Energy Industry’s Obama Wish List
During a conference call Thursday, the leaders of the Solar Energy Industries Association, American Wind Energy Association and other trade groups lobbied for a plethora of legislation and policy initiatives.

TECHNOLOGY
SolFocus Releases New SF-1100S CPV System
The company said that this new generation of its CPV technology achieves panel efficiencies of 25%.

ET Solar Releases Enhanced Dual-Axis Tracking System
ET Solar Group Corp., an integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products, has released a new dual-axis tracking system, the ET-D81, that features a wind-load capacity of 110 mph.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Report: Renewables Can Meet Baseload Replace Old Reactors
Canada’s Energy Minister George Smitherman’s goal of increasing the amount of green energy in the province’s electricity plan can only be met by replacing aging nuclear stations with new green sources of energy over the next decade.

EU Seeks to Expand Energy Grids
The European Commission has unveiled plans to diversify the EU’s energy imports and reduce dependence on Russia, the main gas supplier.

Powering the World
In 2006 18.3% of the world’s electricity was produced using renewable sources. But by 2030 this will rise to 23.3%.

Japan Announces Action Plan to Promote Solar Energy
Four Japanese ministries jointly announced the “Action Plan to Increase the Introduction of Solar Power Generation” on Nov 11, 2008.

Oerlikon Boosts Fab Line Efficiency
The Swiss thin-film production line maker says using zinc oxide instead of tin-oxide and increasing output, raises its Amorph High Performance line’s capacity by 50 percent.

Hoku Materials Signs Solar Silicon Metal Supply Deal with Polymet
The agreement states that Polymet will supply Hoku with guaranteed amounts of metallurgical-grade silicon for three years, beginning in 2009.

Kyocera Announces Construction of New Solar Cell Manufacturing Plant
The new plant, located in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, will be the Kyocera Group’s largest manufacturing facility in Japan.

Donauer Starts Up 1.4 MW Photovoltaic Power Plant
Donauer Solartechnik’s first large photovoltaic project in Spain has been connected to the grid. The ground mounted system in Vila-Sana has a nominal power of around 1.4 MW.

Government Inquiry Supports Adoption of Gross Solar Feed-in Tariff
Am Australian federal senate inquiry report, supports calls for the adoption of a national gross feed-in tariff scheme that would see electricity retailers paying solar-homes for the clean power they produce, says the Alternative Technology Association (ATA).