Hermann Scheer (1944–2010)

I'm fully in favour of a solar-driven society, so I had high expectations for A Solar Manifesto. Nothing presages a coming revolution better than a good manifesto. But unfortunately this supposed manifesto is just a badly translated and outdated rant. The solar energy community would have been better off without it.

To start with, the English in this book is often awkward and unconventional. It is apparently a translation from an original German text, but I must say that I have seldom seen such an unprofessional translation in print. Secondly, this is not so much a reasoned argument for solar energy, but an emotional tirade against contemporary energy policy and against modern society in general. Whatever merits the author may have in other walks of life, he is not a deep thinker - his criticism consists of simplifying and repetitive low-brow rhetoric from a very narrow perspective.

Finally, this second edition is supposed to be a "fully updated edition". Well, a few developments after the year 2000 have been added, but most of the discussion is still clearly set in the early 1990s. And if you're updating a book, you should actually update the year-by-year statistics given in the tables. Including a few recent references might not be a bad idea either.

In conclusion, as disappointing as it is, I can not recommend this book to anyone. For the environmentally minded, there are many other books that criticize industrial civilization more wisely. For the opponent of solar energy, there are not any arguments worth responding to in this book. Even for the proponent of solar energy, pretty much any other optimistic book or magazine article about solar energy should give you a more sensible view of the field than this book offers.

By the time the solar energy revolution comes around, this book will have been deservedly forgotten.… (plus d'informations)