BusinessWeek

Energy standards requiring U.S. utilities to use solar power could drive growth for companies ranging from inverter makers to installation financiers

With utilities adopting standards to increase the amount of solar-generated electricity in coming years, the U.S. could bolster its presence in the global solar-power market. The quickening growth pace could present attractive opportunities for investors, according to some professionals.

Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s biggest maker of semiconductors, flat screens and mobile phones, will more than quadruple the capacity of its pilot solar-cell production line by the first half of next year, a company spokesman said.

Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung started a 30-megawatt solar-cell production line for research and development last September and will incrementally increase capacity to 130 megawatts next year, company spokesman James Chung said today.

Electric cars won't soon replace combustion engines. As a second family vehicle, they can save both money and natural resources

"The long-suffering poor will rise up and bless Mr. Edison." —the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 6, 1903, on word that Thomas Edison would build a $450 electric car.

There are some obvious ways to make the U.S. more competitive with China in clean energy. Why won't the Senate debate them?

Panasonic Corp., the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries, offered to buy out Sanyo Electric Co. and Panasonic Electric Works Co. for 818.4 billion yen ($9.4 billion) to help expand its renewable energy business.

Sanyo Electric Co., the battery maker acquired by Panasonic Corp., returned to profit in the first quarter and raised its profit forecasts, citing stronger earnings from solar panels and electronic components.

At Rutgers University in New Jersey, 7,600 panels convert sunlight into electricity, saving some $200,000 in energy costs this year in the biggest solar-power experiment at a U.S. college.

Its stock's 41 percent jump on Day One may herald a shift in sentiment

With all eyes in the cleantech world focused on Tesla Motors' (TSLA) first day of trading on June 29, venture capitalists and industry executives released a collective cheer when the stock of the electric vehicle maker surged 41 percent. Even sweeter, the investor support came on a day when the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and Nasdaq both plunged more than 3 percent.

Ardour Capital's Walter Nasdeo unearths opportunities in alternative energy

I don't want to be ghoulish about the BP (BP) disaster, but it forces people to think about a different way of producing power without the risk of another Gulf disaster.

China-based BYD wants to be the first to deliver a mass-produced, electric-powered, plug-in vehicle. It might just do it, too

For years, industry watchers have been betting on which company would produce the first reliable, plug-in, electric-powered car. Most experts assumed it would be whichever auto manufacturer first developed a battery powerful enough to run its cars. Would it be General Motors and its Chevy Volt? Or maybe Tesla Motors' Model S?