
Chapter 14
The Role of Research Institutes for the
Promotion of PV: The Case of Fraunhofer
ISE (Institute of Solar Energy Systems)
Adolf Goetzberger
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Germany
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, ...