Applied Materials, one of several major corporations to jump into the solar energy business four years ago, announced today that it is scrapping its line of equipment used to make thin−film solar panels and laying off an estimated 500 employees in this division.

n the meantime, the company has seen its crystalline silicon panel and light−emitting diode businesses grow. As VentureBeat reported last month, following a tour of the SunPower facility in Richmond, Calif., crystalline silicon seems to have thin−film on the ropes. Not only is it much more efficient, and more widely adopted, but it´s starting to be cheaper too.

WASHINGTON – As political agreements on clean energy remain elusive, the countries that use most of the world´s energy launched steps Tuesday to get more clean energy into the global market, including moves toward TVs that waste less electricity, more cars that don´t need gasoline, and buildings and factories that use power more efficiently.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the agreements at the first gathering of energy officials from countries that use 80 percent of global energy: the U.S., Russia, China, Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, European countries, South Korea, Japan, South Africa, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) − The world is enduring the hottest year on record, according to a U.S. national weather analysis, causing droughts worldwide and a concern for U.S. farmers counting on another bumper year.

For the first six months of the year, 2010 has been warmer than the first half of 1998, the previous record holder, by 0.03 degree Fahrenheit, said Jay Lawrimore, chief of climate analysis at the federal National Climatic Data Center.