Power for the World

Wolfgang Palz is currently chairman of the World Council Renewable Energy. He is bearer of an Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande), has been recognised as a wind energy pioneer in Britain and has received European prizes for biomass, wind energy and photovoltaics, respectively.

"...an interesting collection of anecdotes concerning solar projects written by the people who were and are actually on the scene. Though the book does not ignore technical aspects, it highlights personal problems and difficulties, especially the institutional and cultural snags that are seldom included in professional papers. In chapter 1, Palz (World Council for Renewable Energy, Belgium) provides a review of the entire field, emphasizing photovoltaic cells. The remaining chapters are authored by solar experts who collectively span the various specialties and national emphases that complicate the construction of viable projects. In each chapter, the author describes his/her educational background, technical specialty, and personal projects. The authors also discuss project failures, which are often omitted from other works even though they may be very instructive to the reader. Solar technology is still in flux, and dead ends are to be expected. Valuable for all students of solar energy. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries."—J. C. Comer, Emeritus, Northern Illinois University, in CHOICE, August 2011, Vol. 48, #11"Power for the World by Wolfgang Palz is more than an Encyclopedia of Solar Cells. ... Wolfgang Palz is a master in assembling people, themes, and information that makes the reader live the exciting lives of these pioneers with the development of solar cells from its very beginning to the present. He let his many authors describe the fascination with success and the frustration by so many impediments in between. He stimulates the philosophy that leads to this beginning of the solar age. Wolfgang Palz, during his travels through the continents, is a master of creating friendship between scientists, engineers, industries, and politicians worldwide with his charming personality, for the common goal to make this the starting of the solar age. From his desk at the European Union in Brussels he has directed over decades all the essential research in Europe in solar cells. Now he has created a truly remarkable book that needs to find its place on the bookshelf of any one working or interested in solar. It is one of the few books that will be taken out again and again to find more of the exciting description of lived history. The timing of creating this book was exactly right. This is one of the culmination points of Wolfgang Palz’s life, congratulations."—Dr. Karl Boer

• About the Author, List of Contributors, Hymn to the Sun, Foreword, Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2 My Solar Age Started with Tchernobyl, Chapter 3 More Electricity for Less Co[sub(2)], Chapter 4 Solar Power in Practice, Chapter 5 The Story of Developing Solar Glass Facades, Chapter 6 Bringing the Oil Industry into the Picture, Chapter 7 Factory for Sale — or the Long and Stony Way to Cheap Solar Energy: The Story of the Thin-Film CdTe Solar Cells; First Solar and Others — A Semi-Autobiography, Chapter 8 Photovoltaics in the World Bank Group Portfolio, Chapter 9 Solar Bicycles, Mercedes, Handcuffs — PlusEnergy Buildings, Chapter 10 Photovoltaic Power Systems for Lifting Women Out of Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, Chapter 11 Solar Cell Development Work at COMSAT Laboratories (1967–1975), Chapter 12 SolarBank, Chapter 13 Will This Work? Is It Realistic? Thoughts and Acts of a Political Practitioner with a Solar Vision, Chapter 14 The IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, Chapter 15 Review of China's Solar PV Industry in 2009, Chapter 16 Lighting the World: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Chapter 17 The Role of Research Institutes for the Promotion of PV: The Case of Fraunhofer ISE (Institute of Solar Energy Systems), Chapter 18 Abandoning Nuclear in Favor of Renewable Energies, Chapter 19 Nonconventional Sensitized Mesoscopic (Grätzel) Solar Cells, Chapter 20 The PV World Conference in Vienna, Chapter 21 PV in Japan — Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Chapter 22 PV in Europe, from 1974 to 2009: A Personal Experience, Chapter 23 PV in Berlin — How It All Began: The Story of Solon, Q-Cells, PV in Brazil, Chapter 24 Three Steps to a Solar System — 1-40% and 100%, Chapter 25 France Did Not Want to Look for the Sun..., Chapter 26 On the International Call for Photovoltaics of 2008, Chapter 27 High Efficiency Photovoltaics for a Sustainable World, Chapter 28 Promoting PV in Developing Countries, Chapter 29 A World In Blue, Chapter 30 The History of Renewable Energies in the Canary Islands, Especially in Tenerife, Chapter 31 Why was Switzerland Front-Runner for PV in the 90s but Lost the Leadership After 2000?, Chapter 32 A World Network for Solar R&D: ISES, Chapter 33 Early Work on Photovoltaic Devices at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Chapter 34 Leaders of the Early Days of the Chinese Solar Industry, Chapter 35 Illiterate Rural Grandmothers Solar-Electrifying Their Own Villages, Chapter 36 The Kick-off PV Programme in Germany: The One Thousand PV Roofs Programme, Chapter 37 History of Technologies, Development for Solar Silicon Cost Reduction, Chapter 38 The Story of Sunpower, Chapter 39 Terrestrial Photovoltaic Industry — The Beginning, Chapter 40 Solar Power in Geneva, Switzerland, Chapter 41 Early PV Markets and Solar Solutions in South Asia