BusinessWeek

U.S. solar company SunEdison plans to build a major photovoltaic installation in Italy with capacity exceeding 60 megawatts as it aims to expand in Italy's booming solar market, a source familiar with the project said.

"The facility, which will be on operating by the end of this year, will surpass Spain's Almedilla de Alarcon which has a 60 MW capacity and is considered the biggest operating in the world," the source said.

GS Yuasa Corp. plans to boost annual production of lithium-ion batteries 10-fold over two years to meet demand for alternative-fuel vehicles.

Kyoto, western Japan-based GS Yuasa aims to raise production of battery cells to equip 9,000 vehicles in the year ending March 2011 from 2,000 this fiscal year and raise it to about 20,000 the following year, President Makoto Yoda said in a Feb. 26 interview.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp., the Japanese maker of consumer electronics and assembly-line machinery, plans to almost triple production of solar cells in two years to meet demand for renewable energy.

Production capacity may reach 600 megawatts by as early as the year ending March 2012, up from 220 megawatts now, Mitsubishi Electric said in a statement today. The company last month finished construction of a 24,000 square meter (258,000 square feet) plant in northern Japan that may begin operating this fall, the company said.

The wealthy Gulf emirate has big plans to develop green technology, including construction of carbon-neutral Masdar City, but the downturn could slow progress

Asia's 'Clean-Tech Tigers' are out-investing the U.S. in renewable power and energy efficiency

President Barack Obama is spending $2.1 million to help Suntech Power Holdings Co. build a solar- panel plant in Arizona. It will hire 70 Americans to assemble components made by Suntech’s 11,000 Chinese workers.

Defending his all-out push for an electric car, Nissan's Carlos Ghosn says that hybrids and diesels aren't enough

The crowd of 600 falls silent as an employee asks Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn if he's staking too much of Nissan Motor Co.'s future on electric cars and not enough on green alternatives like Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius gas-electric hybrid.

Ghosn steps to the edge of the stage at Nissan's Yokohama headquarters and smiles, lightening the mood on a rainy October afternoon.

Big demand from makers of plug-in hybrid electric cars drives Sanyo's production startup. Sales may begin in 2011 to two unnamed automakers

Sanyo Electric, the world's biggest maker of rechargeable batteries, has won at least two customers for its lithium-ion batteries to fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles, an executive said.

Suntech Power aims to boost its share of the U.S. market with a solar-panel manufacturing plant to be built in Arizona

China's Suntech Power Holdings (STP) is no newcomer to the U.S. Last May, President Barack Obama toured the U.S.'s largest solar panel installation at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. There, row upon row of shiny black Suntech solar panels span 140 acres, cranking out up to 14 megawatts of electricity on sunny days.

Solar startup 1366 Technologies won a prestigious Energy Dept. grant for a direct wafer technology that could halve the cost of photovoltaic installation