Nanosolar--a San Jose maker of thin-film solar cells whose backers include Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page and eBay founder Jeff Skoll--will announce today that it has shipped its first product. The company, along with Beck Energy of Germany, won a competitive bidding process to create a solar farm on the site of a former landfill owned by a wastewater treatment plant in Luckenwalde, Germany. The facility will generate 1 megawatt of electricity, enough to power 750 California homes. Nanosolar creates a copper-based semiconductor compound to print a thin film of ink on foil. It's much cheaper than …

Mickey Mouse and other Disney animated characters like "Cars" star Lightning McQueen and the Disney Princesses will beat the drum exclusively for Rayovac batteries as part of a wide-ranging deal between Rayovac's parent, Spectrum Brands and the Walt Disney Company. As part of the deal, Disney will buy millions of Rayovac batteries, which will become the only battery brand that can be bought by visitors at the six Disney theme parks and water parks in the United States. Spectrum will license from Disney the rights to use the animated characters on packages of Rayovac batteries sold at the …

Several dealership chains have begun giving their luxury-car showrooms multimillion-dollar makeovers with the goals of creating the look and feel of five-star hotels for customers, increasing the dealerships' car allocations and even making it less likely that rival dealerships will pop up nearby. AutoNation, for example, recently opened a gleaming glass-and-stone Lexus store in Palm Beach with a sales floor made of polished porcelain tile. Walls and counters are accented with cherry and bird's-eye maple veneer. "Guests"--as Lexus calls its customers--leave their cars with a valet and are then guided by a personal concierge to a European-style coffee bar …

From high-end dresses to bargain coats, spending on women's apparel dropped nearly 6% during the first half of the Christmas season, compared with the same period last year, according to MasterCard Advisors, a division of the credit-card company. The slowdown is worrisome because women make the vast majority of purchases in retailing, and their spending is a closely watched barometer of the industry's health. Analysts blamed a rough economy, which has discouraged women--and mothers, in particular--from splurging on clothing for themselves and a lack of compelling fashions this winter. MasterCard found that online spending had surged about …

George Dickel Whisky has taken out ads in several newspapers to apologize for a shortage of its No 8 brand, blaming the situation on "an incredible surge in demand." But it's been known for years that a shortfall of the Tennessee sippin' whiskey was coming because parent company Diageo decided to shut down the distillery from 1999 to 2003 to reduce a huge inventory backlog. A previous marketing plan ramped up production during a failed attempt to challenge Jack Daniel Distillery for Tennessee whiskey supremacy. There was such a Dickel surplus that some bottles on the shelves were more …

Olay will launch five products and a personal care Web site, OlayForYou.com, next year--all backed by multimedia campaigns. The blockbuster among the new products is expected to be Olay Regenerist 14-Day Skin Intervention. The two-week treatment is "like Whitestrips for the face," says Eric Admiraal, Olay brand manager for anti-aging. OlayForYou.com launches in January, as do TV and print ads. OlayForYou.com will feature a five-minute consultation designed to meet individual needs. Consumers are then given recommendations regarding their top-two skincare concerns and related Olay products. P&G plans to expand upon the success of Olay.com. That site had 337,000 unique …