The Economic Competitiveness of Renewable Energy: Pathways to 100% Global Coverage

Acknowledgements

This book would never had been possible without the continued support and the silent agreement from my wife Anneliese not to pursue her own career but to care for the family and guide two great kids, Tobias and Elisabeth, from birth through childhood and school into their adult age.

Only this allowed me to devote my time – not only during business hours – to growing a company (ASE – Applied Solar Energy) from scratch to one of the five largest cell and module producers in the early years of the new millennium. My thanks go out to all who supported me in those years, from colleagues and employees to shareholder individuals like Heinz-Werner Binzel, who believed in this new business and supported it in an environment where one would not always have expected it. My thanks go out to all customers who dared to buy the new products in those early days. Equally vital was the cooperation with machine builders and scientists, at which point I wish to highlight Prof. Rudolf Hezel from ISFH and Prof. Joachim Luther from the Fraunhofer-ISE.

At the same time, it was necessary to grow a market with the engagement of colleagues from other companies, who in the end turned out to become good friends, like Hubert Aulich, Tapio Alvesalo, Günther Cramer, Georg Salvamoser and many others in associations like BSW Solar and EPIA, who convinced and supported politicians in creating market support programs – the latter group is best represented by Hans-Josef Fell, to whom I am also grateful ...