Power for the World - The Emergence of Electricity from the Sun

The book concentrates on photovoltaic (PV) solar power and its scientific, technological, industrial, political, environmental and social implications. Modern PV was invented in 1954 along with the transistor; only since 2005 have the PV markets seen an exponential growth: this year, global business stands at $30 billion. It involves hundreds of companies around the world, with 100,000 newly created jobs and tens of thousands of experts. The last specialised PV Conference in 2009 in Hamburg, Germany, had 5000 delegates; the associated exhibition was visited by 50,000 people from 100 nations — more than the "America Cup".

The book comes in three parts: “The Rising Sun in a Developing World”, “Solar Power for the World” and “PV Today and Forever”. It provides a historical summary and gives a comprehensive overview of the present situation worldwide and future strategies for development and implementation. The author is a world leader in PV and all renewable energies. To write the book, the lead author W. Palz collaborated with some 40 VIPs in the sector from all over the world, and in particular from the US, Europe, China and Japan. Some of them are PV specialists, some are from administrations such as the World Bank, some represent associations such as ISES, the oldest of them all, or ACORE from Washington, and last but not the least, some are politicians who introduced the supporting legislation. The book is illustrated with about 100 pictures.

Source: Pan Stanford Publishing