The Solar Economy - Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future
By Hermann Scheer
May 2004 * 347 pages * 216 x 138mm * ISBN 9781844070756
756
The global economy and our way of life are based on the exploitation of
fossil fuels, which not only threaten massive environmental and social
disruption through global warming but, at present rates of consumption,
will run out within decades, causing huge industrial dislocation and
economic collapse. Even before then, the conflicts it causes in the
Middle East and elsewhere will be frighteningly exacerbated.
The alternative exists: renewable energy from renewable sources - above
all, solar. Substituting renewable for fossil resources will take a new
industrial revolution to avert the worst of the damage and establish a
new international order.
It can be done, and it can be done in time. The Solar Economy, by one
of the world's most effective analysts and advocates, lays out the
blueprints, showing how the political, economic and technological
challenges can be met using indigenous, renewable and universally
available resources, and the enormous opportunities and benefits that
will flow from doing so.
Order:
The Solar Economy
Hermann Scheer
'A masterwork by the master advocate for solar.'
Jeremy Eggett, author of The Carbon War
'This book has the greatest importance for the future of mankind.'
Gunther Grass, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1999
'The most powerfully written book on the energy situation. Highly
Recommended!'
Choice
'Scheer's is a heady, utopian vision. Here comes the sun.'
New Scientist
'Forget Kyoto - all talk and no action; this book shows how
technological challenges can be met using indigenous, renewable and
universally available resources, and predicts the enormous benefits
which will flow from doing so.'
Energy World
CONTENTS
From Fossil Fuels to Solar Power: Transforming the Global Economy
Part I: Captivity or Liberation: Fossil Fuel and Solar Supply Chains
Compared
Ensnared by Fossil Supply Chains
Exploiting Solar Resources: The New Political and Economic Freedom
Part II: The Pathological Politics of Fossil Resources
The 21st Century Writing on the Wall: the Political Cost of Fuel and
Resource Conflict
The Distorting Effects of Fossil Supply Chains
The Mythology of Fossil Energy
Part III: Throwing Off the Fossil Supply Chains
Energy Beyond the Grid
The Untapped Wealth of Solar Resources
The Profitability of Renewable Energy and Resources
Part IV: Towards a Solar Economy
Exploiting solar energy
Regionalization of the Global Economy Through Solar Resources
The Visible Hand of the Sun: Blueprint for a Solar World
References
Index
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Herman Scheer, winner of TIME Magazine's 'Heroes of the Green Century'
for his national and international commitment for Renewable Energy.
HERMANN SCHEER is a Member of Parliament for the German Government, the
Deutscher Bundestag. In addition, he is President of EUROSOLAR, the
European Association for Renewable Energies, and General Chairman of
the World Council for Renewable Energy. He has been awarded several
prizes in recognition of his work and achievements, receiving the
Alternative Nobel Prize in 1999, the World Solar Prize in 1998 and the
World Prize for BioEnergy in 2000.
