The solar news recap will be short and sweet today, folks — particularly because First Solar seems to be the only game in town this morning…

In solar stocks news, FirstSolar (NASDAQ:FSLR) topped Wall Street profit estimates for Q1 and raised its 2010 forecast, via Reuters. FSLR shares were up, like, 13 percent in mid-day trading. Also noteworthy:

• Over the course of Q1, the Tempe, Arizona-based maker of thin-film solar managed to reduced its manufacturing costs by three cents, to 81 cents per watt.
• As we relayed in yesterday’s Rundown, First Solar is set to buy NextLight Renewable Power, a solar energy developer with a number of projects in the hopper. The deal will add 1.1 gigawatts (gW) worth of solar panels to the 1.4-gW already in First Solar’s project pipeline.

Investors did not respond as enthusiastically to Akeena’s first quarter results, via Barron’s. The Los Gatos, California-based solar design and installation company (NASDAQ:AKNS) reported revenues of $6.5 million, down from $7 million in the last quarter of 2009 and $7.6 million from the first quarter of 2009.

In Oregon solar news, Solar Nation — a Portland-based solar installer — today announced the final installation and commissioning of a 188-kilowatt (kW) solar electric installation at the Rogers Machinery Company, Inc., via Business Wire. Comprised of 1,074 solar panels and covering nearly 15,000 square feet of roof space, the solar array will supply over half the electricity demand of the company’s Portland, Oregon facility.

The quest for low-cost, reliable energy storage continues… Finance and Commerce yesterday published a brief, interesting story on really, really big batteries – so big they’d crush the Energizer Bunny in a heartbeat. Companies featured in the article include Xcel Energy and General Electric.

Finally today: in broader energy news, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is worse than originally thought — and it’s getting worse. The U.S. Coast Guard is preparing to set fire to the slick before it reaches the Louisiana coastline. Experts say that burning the oil is the best way to limit damage to the marine environment (to say nothing of atmospheric pollution), but a controlled burn of this scale has never been tried before.

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.