GUESS the country. It has over half the world’s installed capacity of photovoltaic cells and is home to some of the largest solar cell manufacturers. In short, it is the solar-power capital of the world. Yet it is not in the sun-drenched tropics nor even bordering the Mediterranean. The country is Germany.
How did this happen? Granted, Germany is a technological powerhouse and has contributed substantially to improving the efficiency of solar cells, but that’s only part of the story. The real secret is political intervention. In 2004, borrowing a Japanese idea, the German government introduced the first large-scale “feed-in”…
