Our mission & history

Our work

Independent of political parties, institutions, companies and interest groups, EUROSOLAR has been developing and stimulating political and economic action drafts and concepts for the introduction of renewable energies since 1988. This ranges from market introduction strategies to proposals for further research and development policies, from tax policy support to arms conversion with solar energy, from the contribution of solar energy for the Third World to agricultural, transport and construction policies.

Addressed are both the international level of action and the national, regional and local levels of action at which EUROSOLAR stimulates these programs. Thus, political, scientific, technological, economic experience and fundamental commitment flow into EUROSOLAR’s programs. They are guidelines for action. EUROSOLAR has decisively supported the introduction of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). The consistent implementation and further development is actively pursued with the demand for a New Energy Market Order for a decentralized energy transition.

Our mission

EUROSOLAR advocates the goal of replacing non-renewable resources quickly and completely with renewable energy and sees a renewable energy supply as the decisive prerequisite for the preservation of the natural basis of life and for a sustainable economy. Only a decentralized energy supply with 100% renewable energy from wind, sun, water, biomass and geothermal energy can create the basis for other measures, achieve climate stability, and end dependence on fossil and nuclear raw materials and economic cycles. Through the decentralized use of natural potentials and in interaction with storage and other technologies, renewables in the areas of electricity, heat and transport create the basis for a world in which conflicts and wars can be replaced by cooperation and mutual aid.

History

From initiative to pioneer – from vision to practice

On August 22, 1988, on the initiative of Hermann Scheer, about 100 people founded EUROSOLAR e.V., the European Association for Renewable Energies. As a non-profit association for renewable energies, EUROSOLAR works “in the perception of ethical responsibility to preserve or restore the natural foundations of life for mankind and the environment, and not to burden them with the problems of nuclear power and the consequences of burning fossil fuels. It strives for the solar energy age and sees in it a task of the century, which can provide mankind in the long run with an energy supply compatible with nature and society” (EUROSOLAR statutes, preamble).

The central goal is the complete substitution of nuclear and fossil energies by renewable energies. The non-partisan association EUROSOLAR distinguishes itself from other organizations and initiatives from the beginning by the following special features:

  1. EUROSOLAR sees itself and works as an international political association, which sees its tasks primarily within Europe.
  2. Members can be natural persons, companies, scientific institutes, public institutions and local authorities, registered associations and other legal entities as well as registered national and international associations in the field of renewable energies, which support the purpose of EUROSOLAR.
  3. Organs are the European Delegates Assembly, the Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees and the national sections or national associations that have the status of a section.
  4. On this basis EUROSOLAR wants to work for the conversion of the energy supply to the inexhaustible solar energy sources like sun, wind and water in large and small scale (art. 2 of the statutes).

Only those energies are promoted whose use does not endanger the renewability of the energy source and thus the nature. The promotion of rational energy management, which helps to accelerate the way into the solar energy age, is also part of it. In all this, EUROSOLAR sees a special responsibility of the industrialized societies to initiate the solar energy age worldwide; EUROSOLAR wants to make a central contribution to the peaceful balance between North and South. At the end of the 1980s, Hermann Scheer raised the question of the financial necessities and possibilities in connection with the necessary entry into worldwide disarmament, when he characterized as grotesque “how a multiple of state resources is mobilized against a fictitious external threat than are available against the actual process of destruction of the environment” (“Das Solarzeitalter”, 1989, p. 23).


Hermann Scheer

Hermann Scheer’s political work for the energy transition can hardly be overestimated in its significance to this day. He has convinced people around the world of the necessity and advantages of a decentralized and renewable energy supply.

It is also thanks to him that more and more people have become active for the energy transition in their respective contexts. As the thought leader that he was, he is remembered for individual perspectives and answers with which he was able to convince. Like early statements about the peace policy necessity of the energy transition, those made shortly before his sudden death in 2010 still hold true today and for the future. His far-sighted books are a rich source of inspiration for all who care about a peaceful, renewable world.