As he pulls away from the headquarters of Tesla Motors in San Carlos, CA, JB Straubel apologizes for the condition of the car. The outside looks fine, a gleaming orange. But inside, instruments dangle from the dashboard. A message scrawled on blue masking tape warns that the passenger's-side air bag is disabled. A bell chimes mysteriously. The car had been shipped to England and subjected to vibration tests designed to "shake it apart and kill it," Straubel says.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is working on an electric car that will be bigger than the Reva brand, said a senior company official. The four-seater, under development, will hit the market by 2010.

Reva sells at a base price of Rs 3.5 lakh in Bangalore and Rs 2.9 lakh onwards in New Delhi. In the European market, the car sells for 12,000 to 13,000 euros. The M&M electric car would costlier. It will run on lead acid battery initially and on nickel metal hydride later, sources said.

Pavement, it turns out, is a pretty good place to look for free energy.

A handful of Massachusetts researchers on Monday published a paper detailing a technique for using water-carrying pipes to convert the built-up heat in asphalt roads into usable energy.

Released at the International Symposium on Asphalt Pavements and Environment in Zurich, Switzerland, the paper argues that asphalt roads have a number of advantages over solar-electric panels as a source of distributed energy.

First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq:FSLR) announced today that it plans to expand its manufacturing operations and development facilities at its Perrysburg, Ohio facility. The investment will add approximately 500,000 square feet of manufacturing, research and development, and office space, and will add at least 134 new jobs to the Company's current workforce of 700 at its Perrysburg facility. First Solar is collaborating with state and local leaders on a comprehensive incentive package for these two projects.

Suntech Successfully Tests Initial Batches of Polysilicon

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), one of the world's leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, today announced it has completed the final round of its $100 million in aggregate purchase of a minority interest in Nitol Solar, an independent polysilicon producer. In conjunction with the completion of the transaction, Suntech also announced that it was pleased with the test results from the initial batches of polysilicon that it has received from Nitol.

China Sunergy Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: CSUN), a specialized solar cell manufacturer based in Nanjing, China, announced today the following shareholder resolutions were adopted at its annual general meeting of shareholders held in Nanjing on August 15, 2008.

Sunergy's shareholders adopted the following ordinary resolutions proposed by the Company:

1. Re-election of Mr. Tingxiu Lu as a director of the Company;
2. Re-election of Mr. Ruennsheng Allen Wang as a director of the Company;
3. Re-election of Ms. Jian Li as a director of the Company;

Frustrated with political deadlock, solar energy companies fear a big setback if Congress fails to renew a key federal tax credit set to expire at the end of the year.

The provision would extend a 30 percent break of up to $2,000 to homeowners. Businesses would qualify for the same percentage, without a cap.

While the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to extend the tax credit, the effort so far has failed eight times in the Senate--the latest defeat occurring on July 30.

General Motors has "essentially finished" designing its first plug-in hybrid car, the Chevrolet Volt, and says it will have production-ready prototypes within 10 days.

The automaker still has considerable work to do on the car's lithium-ion battery and other technology in the two years before the Volt is scheduled to go on sale, but completing the design is a milestone for what is arguably the most crucial car in decades for GM.

Tough congestion fees in Britain's capital have prompted drivers to try out new cars that use alternative fuels

Formerly a traffic nightmare, London city center has become a playground for drivers of alternative energy cars. Since the British capital introduced a congestion charge of 8 pounds sterling for each conventional car between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., Londoners have begun trying out new models that discharge less CO2, freeing drivers from the fee.

German companies Ersol Solar Energy and Aleo Solar have reported earnings results for the first half of 2008, logging solid gains in profitability.

Ersol Solar reported $33.3 million (€ 22.4 million) in net income on $193.5 million (€ 129.9 million) in revenue for the first six months of 2008, compared with $14.3 million on $104 million in revenue for the same period in 2007.

The gains can be attributed to a variety of factors: additional suppliers, increased exports, lower pre-production costs in wafers and solar cells units, and gains from Ersol's Thin Film GmbH division.