ABSTRACT
When I founded the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems
in 1981, the world market for PV was about 4 MW. This is miniscule
as compared to the Gigawatts produced today. At that time, solar
energy was considered Utopian and “experts”, particularly from
utilities predicted that it would never become a viable energy
source. They pointed to the supposedly low solar radiation in
Germany and did not even bother to look at the numbers. When
randomly selected, people were asked their opinion about solar
energy they answered that the Sahara had 100 times more solar
energy than Germany. The generally held opinion was also that solar
energy would never be economical.
