Hermann Scheer
Dr Hermann Scheer (born April 29, 1944) is a physicist, a member of the German Bundestag (Parliament), President of Eurosolar (The European Association for Renewable Energy) and General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy.[1] In 1999, Scheer was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for his "indefatigable work for the promotion of solar energy worldwide".[2]
Scheer believes that the continuation of current patterns of energy supply and use will be environmentally damaging, with renewable energy being the only realistic alternative. Scheer has concluded that it is technically and environmentally feasible to harness enough solar radiation to achieve a total replacement of the fossil/nuclear energy system by a global renewable energy economy. The main obstacle to such a change is seen to be political, not technical or economic [2]. In 1999 he was one of the initiators of the German feed-in tariffs that were the major source of the rise of renewable energies in Germany during the following years.
Political affiliation
Scheer has been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany since 1965 . As a student, he had already engaged himself in the social-democratic university federation. Since 1993 he was in the federal administration. In the shadow cabinet of Andrea Ypsilanti, Scheer was elected of the parliament in Hessen 2008 and served as the shadow minister for economics and the environment.
Books
- Energy Autonomy, The Economic, Social and Technological Case for Renewable Energy, 2006, Earthscan, ISBN 184473556
- A Solar Manifesto, 2005, Earthscan, ISBN 1902916514
- The Solar Economy, Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future , 2004, Earthscan, ISBN 1844070751