Applied Materials said one of its customers has reduced its contract from about $1.9 billion to $250 million in light of the global economic meltdown.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Applied, which develops and makes factory equipment for producing solar panels, didn’t name the customer in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Applied said the original contract, announced in March 2008, involved selling equipment for making thin-film solar panels, which use a layer of amorphous silicon and another layer of microcrystalline silicon for converting sunlight into electricity.

The announcement provides more evidence that the financial market crisis has hit...

The Indian company Green Infra has set a goal of having 500 megawatts of renewable energy in its portfolio by 2012. Wind energy will stand for 300 megawatts of the clean power investment while small-sized solar power projects will generate 100 megawatts. The rest will come from biomass and small gas-based projects. Green Infra is promoted by IDFC Private Equity Fund. The new green power project will need an investment of Rs 3,000 crore, according to Projects Today, the Indian projects database Website. But the investment will also be supported by various Indian Government incentives. As a commercial player in this field, Green Infra can benefit from concessional import duty on...

“It’s the co-products, stupid.??? -- Riggs Eckelberry of OriginOil A wave of algae biodiesel firms and and an accompanying amount of hype have surfaced recently.  Some firms are making outlandish claims about the volume of algae they can produce from an acre of land.  They'll be hoisted with their own petard soon enough. There are many pieces to the algae puzzle that seem like afterthoughts, but are actually crucial to the economics -- co-products, nutrients, harvesting, drying, and conversion technology. System design and algae strain (which seem to be the focus of most discussions) are important, but not the only components. Co-generation, co-location, and...

The ranks of biofuel producers facing bankruptcy continues to climb, with Pacific Ethanol the latest to add its name to the list. The Sacramento-based maker of ethanol from corn reported last week that its creditors had given it until the end of April to pay them back or renegotiate terms. The company is in default on $250 million in loans and could face bankruptcy if it can't find more cash or renegotiate. The past two months have seen Pacific Ethanol shutter three of its five plants in the face of mounting losses. The company last week reported a 2008 loss of $151 million, a decline from 2007 losses of $18.6 million. While the company's sales grew to $704 million in 2008, up...

Bright Automotive, the plug-in hybrid car company spun out of the Rocky Mountain Institute this year, says it will show off its car on April 21 on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Earlier, it was going to debut the car at a show in Norway in May. The name of the car is going to be the Idea. C'mon. Can't you think a little harder than that? ElectraScoot? PowerDrive? Mighty-Lighty (one of the attributes of Bright's car is that it will be comparatively lightweight, which increases battery range)? How about "The same force of nature that is used to remove unsightly eyebrow hairs will charge your car!" as a slogan? People are going to confuse it with Ikea. We interviewed Bright...

Ember, which specializes in ZigBee chips and other wireless networking devices, said it raised $8 million more today. Since 2001, it has raised $89 million. Polaris Venture Partners, GrandBanks Capital, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital, DFJ ePlanet Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures, WestLB Mellon Asset Management (formerly West AM) and strategic partners such as Chevron Technology Ventures and Stata Venture Partners participated in the round. Earlier investors include STMicroelectronics, Hitachi and MIT. On one hand, it's an unvarnished positive. Who doesn't like money? ZigBee and remote wireless networking has also taken longer to take off than anticipated. Back in the early part...

Prism Solar Technologies' CEO Rick Lewandowski just called to say that the company isn't seeking $150 million to build out a factory at a site it had just purchased, contrary to what's been reported by Dow Jones' Clean Technology Insight and VentureBeat.

Lewandowski said he had just closed a bridge round that is under $5 million and was planning to announce it in about a week. "There is no new round open, and we are not seeking new funding at this point," Lewandowski said. 

Prism, founded in 2005, has developed a holographic film that can concentrate sunlight onto silicon-based solar cells to improve power production. The holographic film, sandwiched between glass, can capture...