Following the Sun: The Pioneering Years of Solar Energy Research at the Australian National University, 1970-2005

"Solar energy in Australia is rapidly gaining in profile and acceptance at all levels of society, science, technology and politics. Increasing awareness of both the environmental issues associated with fossil fuels and the declining cost of renewable energy and its technologies, coupled with government schemes to encourage uptake of domestic solar power systems, has seen the sector grow very rapidly in recent years. Behind the government policy and climate change debate, the marketing and commercialisation and solar energy’s coming of age as an alternative to conventional power, lies a story that goes back to the early 1970s. Commercially viable solar energy technology has not appeared ex nihilo. Rather, it is the result of decades of work, challenges, big projects and small advances, acceptance and rejection. This book is the story of what preceded the current period of solar energy research and development."--Introduction