As summer recesses into the colorful calm of autumn, and people are beginning to rake up leaves, their solar systems are continuing to put out lots of heat and power. As with just about any week, there was a plethora of new events happening in the solar world.

As fall clouds, wind and weather are settle in across the country, two recent studies fittingly covered the effect of cloud cover on photovoltaics (PVs). Fall also brings one of the largest nationwide grass-roots events, the National Solar Tour, Clean Energy Authority was on hand to participate in the Denver Area’s Solar and Green Homes Tour and talked with tour organizers across the country to learn more about solar tours in North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan and more. Last week there were also a range of significant events in the solar world, GE’s Ecomagination challenge stopped accepting new entries and the California Energy Commission approved two more giant solar plants. We also caught wind that the world’s largest PV plant would be unveiled Oct. 4 in Ontario. But we just couldn’t cover everything. Here’s the weekly top five pieces of solar news we couldn’t get to:

1. China made another big investment in a PV company. This time its for China-based LDK Solar Co. The company may borrow as much as $8.9 billion from the China Development Bank. LDK Solar is the fifth company to receive large loans from the China Development Bank this year. Other solar companies winning lager loans from the state-owned bank are JA Solar Holdings Co., Suntech Power Holdings Co., Trina Solar Ltd., and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. The bank already had supported their development with $21.4 billion in loans for expansion this year.

2. It’s a far-cry from the funding level of the Chinese government, but PVT Solar said it raised $13.7 million in its second round of venture capital funding. The company makes hybrid solar panels that combine the qualities of a PV with a solar thermal panel used to heat water. The system uses vents under the solar panel to pull sun-warmed air through a heat exchanger, which heats water for use in homes and other applications. The company also named Vikas Desai as its CEO.

3. The Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee might get a little less smoky as new solar projects crop up there. The Tennessee Solar Institute recently announced $9 million in grants to support new solar developments in the state. Roughly 108 projects will benefit from the funds made available by the organization. The new installations will produce roughly 5.8 megawatts, more than doubling the existing PV production of 2.5 MWs in the state.

4. Always creating the new what’s next, scientists are looking to increase the capacity of PV with nanotechnologies. This time, they’re looking at a means of converting photons into multiple electrons (electricity carriers) using a technique called multiple exciton generation (MEG). The technology discussed in the research presented in Science focused on not only the generation of multiple electrons, but also the extraction of the electrons, something which some other technologies had not focused on, according to Ars Technica’s “Solar cells get two electrons for the price of one, efficiency bonus.”

5. China now is producing 40 percent of the world’s PV, Shen Lin, deputy president of Chengdu Technology Research Institute of New Energy Industry, said during China’s (Chengdu) New Energy International Summit. The country has more than 580 businesses involved in the PV industry, and the industry employs 300,000 people. And European Photovoltaic Association data showed that in 2009, Chinese PV companies were four of the top 10 PV companies.