Elpida Memory will receive 50 billion yen (US$521 million) from the Japanese government and a Taiwanese partner after falling semiconductor prices led to a net loss last fiscal year, Japan's economy ministry said.

Japanese PC chip maker Elpida Memory will receive financial support of about 200 billion yen ($2.1 billion) from the government and public and private sector banks, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

Struggling chip maker Elpida Memory has applied for a new government financial aid program in a bid to shore up its capital base and ride out a severe industry downturn, sources said.

Elpida Memory is still considering applying for a public funds injection, a company spokeswoman said Friday.

China, which has criticized protectionist moves elsewhere, is pushing ahead with efforts to ensure that its gargantuan economic stimulus package benefits domestic firms.

President Barack Obama has faced new concerns among the American public about the budget deficit and government intervention in the economy as he works to enact ambitious health and energy legislation, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

The World Bank has raised its forecast for growth in China this year from 6.5% to 7.2% amid signs that the economy is doing better than expected.

Canadian Solar plans to boost its annual production capacity from 620 megawatts to 800 MW by end-August, to meet an expected surge in demand, according to company president and CEO Shawn Qu.

Beijing is expected to unveil subsidized prices for solar power production as soon as the second half of the year, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday, citing an industry official.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that politicians needed to consider whether to aid struggling chipmaker Qimonda and its peers in Germany.

Call them philanthropic or just call them smart investors, the bottom line is that Google wants to provide an alternate solution to the greenhouse gases of laden coal power generation in the US.

A senior Chinese official has said China wants to produce one-fifth of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, a significant increase on the current target.

The economic slowdown could last five to 10 years and cost trillions of dollars, a top US economist has warned. He is urging the US government to introduce a second stimulus package of $500bn to boost the economy.

Solar power leaders remain hopeful in what could be a huge upturn in US solar demand, but continue to be careful about the rest of 2009 after being hit hard from the global credit predicament.

China said it will introduce a preferential tariff it will pay energy companies that use solar power for their generating capacity, as part of the government's push for greater use of clean technology.

Geithner said the two countries had already demonstrated they could co-operate in laying a foundation for economic recovery.

Optimists argue that the government's loose credit and fiscal policies have succeeded in staving off the worst of the economic downturn. However, there are growing concerns about the impact of these policies on the public finances.

Pioneering Taiwan industry leader Morris Chang says better focus is needed. "I think that the Chinese side is still intent on building their own integrated supply chain. They are assisting their design companies and their foundries. It's such a shortsighted policy..."

President Obama said on May 27 that he will use US$467 million in economic-stimulus money for initiatives that in two years will double the country's capacity for clean, renewable energy.

The SEMI PV Group has recommended that China should accelerate its adoption of PV-generated electricity to reach the global average by 2014.

Industry chieftains at the Reuters Global Technology Summit have debated the impact of the Obama administration's tax policies and bailout. Some railed against attempts to chip away at the deficit by cracking down on offshore tax havens. Others say a heavy government hand will hurt competitiveness at a time hardware and software firms are slugging it out for a slice of a stagnant pie.

China's unprecedented growth in recent years has come at a terrible price. Ahead of most forecasts, China in 2008 passed the US to become the world's largest source of greenhouse gases.

"It looks to me now as if the markets are now pricing in a rapid recovery, that they're pricing in a V-shaped recession, which I consider extremely unlikely," said Krugman at a forum in Shanghai on May 12.

As more banks raise money to repay bailout loans, that means big fees for Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

China's consumer prices fell by 1.5% in the year to April, figures show, the third consecutive month of declines.

The manufacturing sector in the US continues to shrink ?X but could the renewable-energy rush spur a manufacturing revival?

Asia's governments must spend more on social safety nets and reduce their reliance on export-driven growth as they grapple with an economic meltdown that will keep tens of millions trapped in poverty, finance officials said Sunday.

The president announced the establishment of a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. With a proposed budget of US$400 million, ARPA-E will focus on research into clean alternatives for carbon-based energy.

Things are looking up for Xugong Group, China's largest heavy machinery maker. Driven by Beijing's five-month-old US$586 billion fiscal stimulus, sales of its bulldozers, wheel loaders, and construction cranes reached an all-time high in March, a spokesman says.

Instead of an expected downturn, Asia's fourth-largest economy squeaked out slight first-quarter GDP growth of 0.1 percent, rather than contracting by .2 percent as expected, according to the Bank of Korea.

Elpida Memory, Japan's largest maker of computer-memory chips, climbed to the highest in six months in Tokyo trading after it said it plans to raise chip prices and a report said the company may receive public funding.

Japan's government is considering providing funds to Elpida Memory to bolster its capital, NHK said, without providing an amount or saying where it got the information.

If Ontario's Bill 150 (the Green Energy and Green Economy Act) is passed as expected in May, Ontario will become the first North American jurisdiction with an incentive system modeled after the German feed-in tariffs (FITs), according to incentive expert Paul Gipe.

Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a historic US$150 billion stimulus package Friday aimed to turn around the recession in the world's second-largest economy.

Japan's subsidies for home solar panels have attracted far fewer applicants than planned, industry data showed on Wednesday, underscoring the likelihood of bold government steps to promote solar power.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday the upcoming budget will contain environmental measures to aid recovery from recession, including creating thousands of "green" jobs.

...In the long run, they say, there will be only three viable entities, at least at the leading edge of chipmaking: Samsung in memory chips, Intel in microprocessors and TSMC in foundries. The rest will be "nationalistic" ventures in need of regular government bail-outs.

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday (April 2), endorsing a US$3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

The nation's largest developer of renewable energy has planned to unveil a green power purchase program that could shake up the market by channeling all of the money into new wind and solar projects.