EUROSOLAR Press Release, December 20th, 2006

Hermann Scheers new book "Energy Autonomy - The economic, social and technological case for Renewable Energy" is available now. For 200 years industrial civilization has relied on the combustion of abundant and cheap carbon fuels. But continued reliance has had perilous consequences. On the one hand there is the insecurity of relying on the world’s most unstable region - the Middle East - compounded by the imminence of peak oil, growing scarcity and mounting prices. On the other, the potentially cataclysmic consequences of continuing to burn fossil fuels, as the evidence of accelerating climate change shows.

Yet there is a solution: to make the transition to renewable sources of energy and distributed, decentralized energy generation. It is a model that has been proven, technologically, commercially and politically, as Scheer comprehensively demonstrates in his book.

The advantages of renewable energy are so clear and so overwhelming that resistance to them needs diagnosis - which Scheer also provides, showing why and how entrenched interests oppose the transition and what must be done to overcome these obstacles.

"Hermann Scheer - principal architect of the policies that converted cloudy Germany into the world’s leading market for solar energy - demonstrates that the German model can and must be replicated in every nation that aspires toward a healthy, peaceful future."
Denis Hayes, Former Director of the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

"This book is a powerful indictment of how we meet our energy needs. In urging an acceleration of the transition to renewable energy, Scheer exposes the fallacies surrounding the current paradigm and looks beyond the purely environmental benefits to outline the path to energy security."
Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute

Ranked number one 'Most Important New Non-Fiction', Die Zeit

Hermann Scheer is 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 (WCRE). Dr Scheer has received numerous awards, including the World Solar Prize and the Alternative Nobel Prize. In 2002 Time Magazine recognized him as one of five 'Heroes for the Green Century'.

His previous books include The Solar Economy (2002) and A Solar Manifesto (1994).

Energy Autonomy. The Economic, Social and Technological Case for Renewable Energy. Published in December 2006, Earthscan/James & James, 300 pages, ISBN 1-84407-355-6

For review copies, please contact Alex Turvey ( ) at Earthscan .