It's been barely a fortnight since UK customers started receiving their pre-orders for Sony's flagship HX923 series of Bravia LED-backlit LCD TVs, but now the Japanese manufacturer has issued a recall on all existing display models and boxed units from Sony Centres and independent dealers, following complaints from KDL-46HX923 and KDL-55HX923 owners about a physical defect on the LCD screen.

In early June, Gestamp Asetym Solar revealed that it would be working with French automaker Renault to install a solar system on the automakers manufacturing plants in France. The companies recently advised that they had chosen Trina Solar as the PV module supplier for the project. Through its subsidiary, Trina Solar Spain, the company signed a sales agreement with Gestamp, but neither company disclosed any of the financial details for the deal.

Two of potentially the largest utility-scale PV projects so far planned in China will be supplied modules by Yingli Green Energy. A module supply agreement has been signed with Huanghe Hydropower Development Co for the supply of a total of 110 MW of PV modules for two ground mounted plants to be built in Wulan, Qinghai province and Golmud, Qinghai province. Yingli said the modules are expected to be delivered from June through August of this year.

Australia's renewable energy sector has reassured consumers about the safety of household solar power systems after NSW Government released a statement yesterday discussing the results of an audit conducted by the Office of Fair Trading.

The DOE is working with utilities and local governments to streamline U.S. solar permitting - a 'new frontier for solar cost decline,' says advocacy group

The U.S. Energy Department said it is offering to guarantee about $4.5 billion in loans for First Solar Inc. to finance three renewable energy projects in California that the solar-panel maker is developing.

Taiwanese prosecutors have indicted former president Lee Teng-hui, the state's first democratically elected leader, on corruption charges.

TI's Miho and Aizu sites and its Tokyo offices were affected by the initial magnitude 8.9 earthquake. Initial production lines at Miho resumed in mid-April, and full production will resume in third quarter. TI's fab in Aizu has returned to full production.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) has announced that its chairman died. But shareholders rejected CEO David Wang's reappointment as a board director, and the company requested its shares be suspended from trading in Hong Kong pending the release of "price- sensitive" information.

Shares of Taiwan's HTC are up more than 15% this year as the company cashes in on Android. Investors might be wise to seek out international funds that own the stock.

An uncontrolled renewable power expansion in Germany could threaten the stability of energy grids, the head of energy agency Dena told Reuters on Wednesday.

Hitachi Ltd is in talks with Toshiba and Sony about joining the merger of their liquid-crystal display (LCD) units, a move that would create the world's largest maker of small panels, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

Mouser Electronics announced a partnership agreement with LEDiL, a leader in innovative LED lighting optics for high-power and lighting-class LEDs.

After two quarters of declining shipments, photovoltaic module manufacturers are set to see strongly recovering demand through the second half of 2011.

Q-Cells SE of Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany, which manufactures both silicon and thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, has introduced its Q.SMART CIGS PV modules in the North American market. Q.SMART is a high-yield and high-efficiency thin-film module designed to maximize power output and return-on-investment in distributed solar generation.

The production cost of solar power could be halved by 2013 given higher demand, improved technology and economies of scale, according to to Suntech Power Holdings Co, the world's largest thin-film solar cell manufacturer.

German solar company Q-Cells unveiled its thin film modules in the United States on Wednesday as it seeks to cash in on growing demand in North America while lessening its reliance on the European market, where government support for solar is declining.

Japan's industrial production rose for a second straight month in May, after falling sharply in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but the increase in factory output was lower than the government had forecast.

The sector is beginning to see a decline in sales and product prices after several years of fast growth.

Online search giant Google has launched a new social networking website in its latest attempt to take on Facebook, which now claims more than 500m users.

Spansion has announced a collaboration with Freescale on a memory expansion module for the Freescale Tower System that provides design engineers more flexibility in prototyping a growing range of embedded applications.

LG Electronics (LG) today introduces its next generation DM50D monitor, which includes all the advantages found on LG's game-changing CINEMA 3D TVs in a form factor that fits easily on a desktop. The flicker-free, bright images and lightweight 3D glasses that customers have come to associate with CINEMA 3D can all be found on the DM50D, including Full HDTV. The DM50D is the perfect platform for 3D gaming and movie watching.

Vizio, a leading supplier of LED-backlit LCD HDTVs, announced it will enter the LED lighting market with a series of replacement lamps using LEDs supplied by Epistar and Seoul Semiconductor.

LDK Solar is the world's second largest manufacturer of solar wafers - displaced from the top spot by its rapidly growing rival GCL-Poly Energy Holdings last year. The company is also a leading vertically integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products and competes with other solar energy players like First Solar, Suntech Power and Sunpower.

The solar power industry is facing a double threat from a Congress that may turn off the flow of federal subsidies and take a pass on mandating renewable-energy standards that would increase demand.

TSMC may first appear, in the fourth quarter, as a second-source supplier of the A5 processor, according to Gus Richard, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, who wrote about this in a research note last month and still maintains this outlook. Then TSMC would take on the next-gen A6.