Power for the World
The Emergence of Electricity from the Sun
Power for the World by Wolfgang Palz is more than an Encyclopedia of Solar Cells. Every chapter is fascinating and one cannot help but admire Wolfgang Palz how he was able to find so many of the pioneers in the field that are still alive and can let us partake in the exciting time of their life dedicated to solar and the development of these cells. From the vivid description that Mort Prinz gave of the first months of the discovery that properly doped silicon can transform sunlight into electric energy at an efficiency exceeding more than five times any cell that was sold for the last four decades; it transformed the “photocell” as it was known then to the first “solar cell.” Palz let Dieter Bonnet describe his life from his first weeks of finding out that CdTe in combination with CdS makes an attractive thin-film solar cell, and how he survived periods of ample support to this promising field followed by periods in which no more support was deemed worth further investigation. However, he again and again prevailed, improving the cell every time and making it adaptable for mass production; to see such a mass production was taking off so successfully, and to a multibillion dollar industry now. Wolfgang Palz is a master in assembling people, themes, information that makes the reader “live” the exciting lives of these pioneers with the development of solar cells from its very beginning to the present. He let his many authors describe the fascination with success and the frustration by so many impediments in between. He stimulates the philosophy that leads to this beginning of the solar age. Wolfgang Palz, during his travels through the continents, is a master of creating friendship between scientists, engineers, industries, and politicians worldwide with his charming personality, for the common goal to make this the starting of the solar age. From his desk at the European Union in Brussels he has directed over decades all the essential research in Europe in solar cells. Now he has created a truly remarkable book that needs to find its place on the bookshelf of any one working or interested in solar. It is one of the few books that will be taken out again and again to find more of the exciting description of lived history. The timing of creating this book was exactly right. This is one of the culmination points of Wolfgang Palz’s life, congratulations.
Dr. Karl Boer
- Format: Hardcover
- ISBN: 9789814303378
- Series: Jenny Stanford Series on Renewable Energy
- Subject: Solar Energy
- Published: October 2010
- Pages: 575
USD $83.95
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