
Chapter 19
France Did Not Want to Look
for the Sun
Alain Li
´
ebard and Yves-Bruno Civel
Observatoire des Energies Renouvelables, Fondation Energies pour le Monde,
146, rue de l’Universit
´
e, F-75007 Paris, France
observ.er@energies-renouvelables.org, www.energies-renouvelables.org
Back in 1980, some French pioneers, among them Robert Lion, Serge
Antoine, and Jo
¨
el de Rosnay, founded the “Comit
´
e d’Action pour le
Solaire”. Their first task was to draft and publish the “Manifesto for
a Solar France”. That visionary text anticipated that by the end of
the 20th century, 20% to 25% of all energy needs could be met with
the solar, heat, light, wind, water and