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.
