
Chapter 17
The Story of Developing Solar Glass
Fac¸ades
Joachim Benemann
Former Industrial Leader in Germany, Berlin/Cologne
In April 1984, I got the job to take care for the solar business
at Flachglas AG, a leading European glass manufacturer and the
only supplier of parabolic mirrors for solar thermal power plants.
More than 2.4 million square meters were supplied when in 1990
the oil price was low that solar generated electricity could not be
competitive anymore. We discussed to shut down the solar activities.
Shortly before the final decision was taken by the Board, we
received a paper, written by Strategies Unlimited, a US-based
consulting company