The Solar Economy

"In order for anything to be successful, you need supportive legislation, and to get supportive legislation you need politicians who are committed and informed. Herman Scheer was the great political champion of solar in Germany. He was the one who bulldozed the crucial legislation through the German parliament, against the wishes of the Schroeder government. Without him, the whole sea-change in solar in Germany would not have happened. He wasn’t a scientist by background, but he recognised that there was a problem here – the problem of conventional fossil fuels running out, and nuclear having a whole set of its own problems. He was politically ambitious, and recognised that there was an opportunity for him to make his mark by championing renewable energy in general, and solar in particular. He was an autodidact, and he read up and was prepared to take on anybody – it didn’t matter whether they were scientists or economists. He would take them on head-on, and he would win. He was a bulldog of a man, powerful and compact, a really dynamic individual. In his youth he played water polo, which probably was good training for the kind of political battles he subsequently fought. Tragically, he died late last year, at age 66. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter There are two books here – I originally chose The Solar Manifesto because it was the first, but Scheer also wrote The Solar Economy , which came out in 2004 and so is more up to date. It reinforces everything the first one said, but adds more detail and more practical material. The books reflect the author. They’re so strong. You can really believe, as he believed, that 100% renewables is a viable solution within a relatively short space of time. He quotes the example of the railways – how quickly they were built once people really got the idea that they were going to be useful. He says, ‘We’ve done it before; we can do it again.’ Absolutely. Without parallel. He was a one-off, Hermann Scheer. There is no one else like him, anywhere. We owe him a great debt."