Note 9 - Assets Held for Sale (Detail) (USD $)	12 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011		May 31, 2012 Solar Facility [Member]	Jun. 30, 2011 Solar Facility [Member]	Jun. 30, 2012 Solar Facility [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Solar Facility [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Solar Facility [Member]	Jan. 02, 2010 Solar Facility [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 SEF [Member]
Assets Held-for-sale, Current	$ 0	$ 11,777,000	[1]				$ 6,300,000	$ 6,700,000	$ 10,000,000	$ 5,500,000
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale, Impairment Charge								3,300,000
Asset Impairment Charges	6,038,000	400,000	[1],[2]	700,000	400,000
Liabilities of Assets Held-for-sale				4,200,000
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale, Proceeds from Sale						$ 1,500,000

[1] As recast to reflect the balances of Solar Green Technology S.p.A. ("SGT") beginning January 1, 2011 combined with the balances of Solar Power, Inc. beginning March 31, 2011, as required under the accounting guidelines for a transfer of an entity under common control (refer to Note 5 -Acquisition of Solar Green Technology).

[2] As recast to reflect the balances of Solar Green Technology S.p.A. ("SGT") beginning January 1, 2011 combined with the balances of Solar Power, Inc. beginning March 31, 2011, as required under the accounting guidelines for a transfer of an entity under common control (refer to Note 5 -Acquisition of Solar Green Technology ).