LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Electric car startup Fisker Automotive Inc said on Monday it has suspended work at its U.S. manufacturing plant and laid off 26 workers there while it renegotiates the terms of its $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The company has also let go about 40 workers, mostly engineering contractors, at its Anaheim, California headquarters, a spokesman said.

The company has received $193 million of the federal loan so far, it said in a statement. Most of those funds have supported the rollout of its first vehicle, a $102,000 plug-in hybrid sportscar called the Karma that was plagued with production delays and a recent recall.

Fisker’s Wilmington, Delaware plant, a former General Motors Co (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) factory, is expected to manufacture the company’s second vehicle, a sedan known as the Nina. The $336 million balance of its DOE loan is intended to fund that car, Fisker said.

Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher would not elaborate on the reasons it was seeking revised terms for its government loan, but a DOE spokesman cited delays in getting the Karma to market.

“Our loan guarantees have strict conditions in place to protect taxpayers. The Department only allows the loan to be disbursed as the company meets certain milestones and demonstrates results,” DOE spokesman Damien LaVera said.

“The Department is working with Fisker to review a revised business plan and determine the best path forward so the company can meet its benchmarks, produce cars and employ workers here in America.”

LOS ANGELES, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Electric car startup Fisker Automotive Inc said on Monday it has suspended work at its U.S. manufacturing plant and laid off 26 workers there while it renegotiates the terms of its $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The company has also let go about 40 workers, mostly engineering contractors, at its Anaheim, California headquarters, a spokesman said.

The company has received $193 million of the federal loan so far, it said in a statement. Most of those funds have supported the rollout of its first vehicle, a $102,000 plug-in hybrid sportscar called the Karma that was plagued with production delays and a recent recall.

Fisker’s Wilmington, Delaware plant, a former General Motors Co factory, is expected to manufacture the company’s second vehicle, a sedan known as the Nina. The $336 million balance of its DOE loan is intended to fund that car, Fisker said.

Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher would not elaborate on the reasons it was seeking revised terms for its government loan, but a DOE spokesman cited delays in getting the Karma to market.

“Our loan guarantees have strict conditions in place to protect taxpayers. The Department only allows the loan to be disbursed as the company meets certain milestones and demonstrates results,” DOE spokesman Damien LaVera said.

“The Department is working with Fisker to review a revised business plan and determine the best path forward so the company can meet its benchmarks, produce cars and employ workers here in America.”

LOS ANGELES, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Solar power company SolarCity is expected to debut on U.S. markets in the third quarter this year and has hired Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to underwrite its initial public offering, a source close to the company said on Thursday.

The San Mateo, California-based startup will file its IPO plans with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “within a few weeks,” the source said. The deal is expected to value the company at around $1.5 billion.

Spokesmen for both SolarCity and Goldman would not comment.

A market debut by SolarCity could help revive what has become a dismal market for clean technology offerings.

Closely watched energy startups including solar thermal power plant builder BrightSource Energy Inc and power grid networking company Silver Spring Networks filed to go public last year but have been waiting for market conditions to improve to set dates for their debuts.

SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive — the first cousins of Tesla Motors (TSLA.O: Quote, Profile, Research) CEO and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who serves as SolarCity’s chairman.

The company has rapidly grown to become the top U.S. installer of residential solar systems, with 14 percent of the market in the first three months of 2011, according to GTM Research.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Canadian Solar Inc is scrambling to ramp up production of solar panels to meet an unexpected surge in demand from Europe, Chief Executive Shawn Qu said on Tuesday.

German customers, in particular, have increased orders in anticipation of a reduction in the government’s subsidy for solar energy in the coming months, Qu told Reuters in an interview.

“We have seen very strong demand in the past few weeks which caught us a little bit off guard,” Qu said. “Part of this demand pull is because the German customers are concerned about a policy change.”

Canadian Solar’s shares, which were down about 9 percent before Qu’s comments, briefly moved into positive territory before settling down about 7.5 percent at $3.82 on the Nasdaq.

Germany’s environment minister last week said Berlin aims to lower solar power incentives by April 1 as it tries to rein in growth in the world’s largest solar market. Germany added a record 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar installations in 2011 – well above many expectations.

In addition to the surprisingly strong increase in demand, the Chinese New Year holiday also took a toll on Canadian Solar’s ability to boost production, Qu said.

“Because of that there is a supply shortage going on in the past two weeks,” Qu said. “At this moment we are trying to ramp up as much as possible to supply our European customers.”

LOS ANGELES, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Canadian Solar Inc (CSIQ.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is scrambling to ramp up production of solar panels to meet an unexpected surge in demand from Europe, Chief Executive Shawn Qu said on Tuesday.

German customers, in particular, have increased orders in anticipation of a reduction in the government’s subsidy for solar energy in the coming months, Qu told Reuters in an interview.

“We have seen very strong demand in the past few weeks which caught us a little bit off guard,” Qu said. “Part of this demand pull is because the German customers are concerned about a policy change.”

Canadian Solar’s shares, which were down about 9 percent before Qu’s comments, briefly moved into positive territory before settling down about 7.5 percent at $3.82 on the Nasdaq.

Germany’s environment minister last week said Berlin aims to lower solar power incentives by April 1 as it tries to rein in growth in the world’s largest solar market. Germany added a record 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar installations in 2011 - well above many expectations [ID:nL5E8CP43M].

In addition to the surprisingly strong increase in demand, the Chinese New Year holiday also took a toll on Canadian Solar’s ability to boost production, Qu said.

“Because of that there is a supply shortage going on in the past two weeks,” Qu said. “At this moment we are trying to ramp up as much as possible to supply our European customers.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California approved aggressive new rules on Friday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring automakers to put many more electric and hybrid vehicles on the Golden State’s roads by 2025.

The regulations were approved unanimously by nine members of the state’s powerful air-quality regulator, the California Air Resources Board, at a meeting in Los Angeles.

They are expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent and smog and soot pollutants by 75 percent by 2025, in part by putting 1.4 million electric, plug-in and hydrogen vehicles on the state’s roads.

The program would also mandate the development of an infrastructure for hydrogen fueling stations.

“Californians have always loved their cars … Now we’re going to have cleaner and more efficient cars to love,” CARB Chairman Mary Nichols said on a conference call with reporters following the vote. “This really is a historic new chapter in California’s history with the automobile.”

The influential CARB voted on the rules following a two-day hearing that included testimony from automakers, environmentalists, politicians and consumer advocates. The rules will affect vehicles beginning in the 2017 model year.

The rules are part of the state’s aggressive plan to reduce climate warming emissions by 80 percent by 2050. California is the biggest U.S. car market and has had the distinction of being able to set policy independent of federal rules, making it into a laboratory for change over the years.

By Nichola Groom

(Reuters) – Chinese solar panel makers flooded the U.S. market with their products at the end of last year in anticipation of potential duties on those products, a coalition of domestic solar manufacturers said on Wednesday.

The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, led by the U.S. arm of German panel maker SolarWorld AG, said Chinese manufacturers including Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd and Trina Solar Ltd have more than doubled shipments of solar cells and modules.

Citing data from the U.S. Customers and Border Protection’s Port Import Export Reporting Service, the coalition said Suntech imports rose 76 percent in November compared with the previous month. At the same time, it said Trina’s imports rose 209 percent in the first half of December compared with the first half of November.

“This significant increase in imports demonstrates that the Chinese know they have violated U.S. and international trade rules and are trying to evade the consequences,” Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America, said in a statement.

Suntech cited a change in a key U.S. government program for solar installations at the end of 2011 for the year-end surge. The program had paid solar developers a cash grant of 30 percent of the cost of new products. This year it has become a tax benefit program that allows solar power plant developers to deduct 30 percent of a project’s cost from their taxes over several years.

“Strong U.S. market demand in the fourth quarter was driven largely by the anticipated expiry of the cash grant program,” a company spokesman said. “Suntech continues to grow steadily with the U.S. solar industry, and in 2011 we maintained our leading market share.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fisker Automotive Inc has once again ratcheted down sales projections for 2012, saying the rollout of its luxury electric cars in both the United States and Europe was slower than expected due to regulatory hurdles.

The California startup now expects to sell “about 10,000″ of its Karma vehicles this year, spokesman Roger Ormisher said, down from a prior projection of between 10,000 and 12,000 given in November. That view had been adjusted from an original target of 15,000.

“We were slower coming into the market in the U.S., and slower coming into Europe,” Ormisher said, citing longer-than-expected mileage and emissions certification processes.

The $102,000 Karma is the first production vehicle for the fledgling automaker that was founded in 2007 by Henrik Fisker, a onetime Aston Martin designer. But the process of bringing the much-hyped vehicle to market has been troubled.

Delays in rolling out the Karma have increased scrutiny of the privately held company, which received a $529 million federal loan.

Ormisher’s comments come on the heels of a sales warning on Friday from its battery supplier, A123 Systems Inc (AONE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and a brief interruption in sales due to a software glitch.

Fisker halted sales of the Karma for four days this month to fix a software malfunction that at times caused warning lights to come on as well as a temporary freezing of the vehicles’ navigation systems, Ormisher said.

By Nichola Groom

(Reuters) – Thin film solar startup Nanosolar Inc on Thursday named a former Cisco Systems Inc and Hewlett Packard Co operations executive as its chief executive.

Eugenia Corrales, 46, who has served as Nanosolar’s executive vice president of engineering and operations since May of 2010, will replace CEO Geoff Tate, who is retiring after two years.

Tate, 57, is a former CEO of Rambus Inc who came out of retirement to oversee Nanosolar’s transition to commercial production.

In an interview, Corrales said she would stick with the company’s current strategy of building orders for its newly expanded 115 megawatts of production capacity.

“We can achieve a cost structure similar to other players that have a gigawatt of capacity,” Corrales said. “We can do that with a much lower volume.”

Before joining Nanosolar, Corrales held positions at two cleantech startups. Prior to that, she held manufacturing and operations positions at Cisco and HP.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A fledgling but fast-growing solar technology that multiplies the sun’s power up to many hundreds of times promises to deliver cheaper electricity than traditional panels and has received the backing of some major industry players.

Called concentrating photovoltaic solar, or CPV, the technology is best suited for very sunny, desert-like locations and could face some near-term challenges. Those include a sharp drop in the price of its top competition — mainstream solar panels — and a financing environment that can be skittish about new technology bets.

That hasn’t stopped some big corporations from moving into the space, however, with U.S. solar company SunPower Corp and Swiss engineering company ABB Group making significant bets on CPV in recent months. Previously, the technology had been primarily the domain of a handful of Silicon Valley startups.

“This is the only model which is viable in the long run because this model is very competitive without the kind of subsidies which have been supporting the PV market for the last decade,” said André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, chief executive of French semiconductor materials maker Soitec SA, which bought a majority stake in German CPV maker Concentrix Solar in 2010.

CPV’s market share is still tiny, with just 689 megawatts of projects in development compared with 33,000 MW of installed non-concentrating solar panels globally, according to GTM Research. It is expected to grow quickly to more than 1 gigawatt of new installations by 2015, but its share of the market would remain small given its geographic limitations. In 2015, CPV would still represent less than 4 percent of the solar market.

Though CPV technologies vary widely, their fundamental similarity is the use of lenses or mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto very efficient photovoltaic cells. Tracking systems are used to capture maximum sunlight.

Because the sun’s power is literally multiplied, fewer solar cells — which are made from costly semiconductor materials — are needed. That’s a major advantage, CPV manufacturers say, as renewable energy is still racing to reduce its cost so it can compete — without government subsidies — with nuclear, coal and natural-gas-fired power.