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
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 a wind energy pioneer in Britain, and received the 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
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