From the energy saving trust:

The global renewable energy sector is growing, new figures have revealed, signalling a 54 per cent increase in demand in the past year alone.

IMAP's 2010 Alternative Energy Global Report shows that the number of mergers and acquisitions in the market grew, suggesting confidence from investors in the sector.

This in turn could bring down the cost of energy products, and through investments from utility companies, could also reduce fuel bills.

The report showed that the total transaction value of investor deals over the past 12 months came to $20.4 billion (£13 billion), with China leading the way with the highest investment value.

Europe had the largest number of transactions; however they were of a lower value.

Ketil Wig, chairman of IMAP's Energy & Power Industry Group, commented: "The cost of clean technologies is decreasing and these technologies are being utilised in more applications.

"Within the next decade, we expect solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, smart meters, energy storage devices, wind turbines and other clean technologies to become commodities and help the market to mature."

See the the original article here: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Resources/Energy-saving-news/Renewable-energy2/Renewable-energy-sector-growing

From energysavingtrust.org.uk

"Feed-in tariffs came into being last month, and were introduced by Labour to encourage householders to install solar panels or wind turbines, paying them a tax-free, index-linked income for the energy they produce.

The coalition agreement drawn up by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats promised to honour “the full establishment of feed-in tariff systems in electricity”.

The tariffs pay up to 41.3p for every kWh of electricity produced using solar panels and an extra 3p per unit on top for any surplus electricity sold back to the grid. When you cannot generate enough energy for your needs, you buy electricity from your utility company at normal rates, but you will buy less, making significant savings on utility bills.

Ownergy, a company that advises consumers on renewable energy, suggests you can expect a return of about £950 a year for the average three- or four-bedroom house with solar panels, which typically cost £14,000 to install.

Given that the income is tax-free, the return on a £14,000 investment is equivalent to 12.9% for a 50% taxpayer and 10.3% for a 40% taxpayer, with the investment recouped in as little as seven years. As the payments are linked to RPI, this equates to a real return of 18.2% and 15.6% respectively at today’s RPI rate of 5.3%."

Read the original article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/savings/article7133583.ece

"A tax-free, index-linked return of 10 per cent a year, guaranteed for 25 years may sound too good to be true.

But this is the level of return the Government claims you could receive by investing in a solar panel system for your home.

If you think installing solar panels is only for those committed to ecological issues, a new government scheme designed to increase uptake of renewable energy may make you think again."

Read the full article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/7684155/Solar-panels-a-tax-free-return-of-10pc-pa.html

Kyocera Corporation today announced that it will begin full-scale production at its new Yasu solar cell manufacturing facility in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The new plant, which was completed in March of this year and has already finished production line testing, is the largest of the company’s domestic manufacturing facilities, and will be producing the company’s highly-efficient multicrystalline silicon solar cells.

The new Yasu Plant employs an enhanced manufacturing line, and will produce solar cells with a 16.9% energy conversion efficiency — one of the world’s highest for mass-produced cells. In tandem with the company’s existing Shiga Yohkaichi Plant (Japan), the new plant will contribute to meeting Kyocera’s annual production target of 1GW of solar cell by March 2013

BAODING, China, Aug 05, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE) ("Yingli Green Energy" or the "Company"), a leading solar energy company and one of the world's largest vertically integrated photovoltaic ("PV") manufacturers, which holds the brand "Yingli Solar," announced its in-house polysilicon manufacturing facility, Fine Silicon Co., Ltd. ("Fine Silicon"), has successfully started commercial operation, which is another significant milestone after Fine Silicon announced it has commenced trial production and reached certain key technology and operating milestones in December 2009. With state-of-the-art facilities and advanced monosilane-based polysilicon manufacturing technology, the polysilicon plant with a designed capacity of 3,000 metric tons ("MT") per year is capable of producing high quality solar-grade and electronic-grade polysilicon through energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes.