ABSTRACT
The cost prospect of solar energy was a non-negligible incentive for photovoltaics development. As a matter of fact, against the background of energy strategies for the future, the prevailing one that led to a change of paradigm in favour of solar energy, the solar revolution at the turn of the century was the pressing threat of a nuclear conflict, in the midst of the cold war. A political concern of highest priority was always the criteria of national energy independence. Since the turn of the century, the renewable energies have made it into the mainstream of the world’s energy supply and consumption. Already in 1950, the World Peace Movement issued the Stockholm Appeal, calling for an absolute ban on nuclear weapons. The biggest German demonstrations of all times took place against the stationing of new nuclear ballistic missiles in the country, and against a third world war that was seen as probable.
