Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Economics - Macro-economics, general, grade: 1,7, University of applied sciences, Munich, language: English, abstract: Introduction:The 20th century is marked by the industrial growth of all nations around the world. As a result the global energy demand is tremendously rising and most likely this will increase the threat of global warming. Mankind must therefore find a way to feed the energy hunger of the growing nations.Due to this international development and the fear of nuclear plants1 the leading political parties of Germany have decided to focus on a nuclear free energy mix composed of renewable energy. This mix is seen as the problem solver and solution for the world wide energy demand. To push the development of the renewable energy sector a system of direct and indirect subsidies was therefore established by the leading political parties.Problem Definition:As stated before, the German approach is to push the renewable energy sector by direct or indirect subsidies. The photovoltaic sector in particular is very highly subsidised. So far everything looked smoothly for the development of this plan. However, the last months have been dominated by press releases regarding German solar panel producers going bankrupt, like Solar Millennium, Solon, Solarhybrid and Q-Cells.Objectives:This development is raising the question: What has happened in the solar panelindustry sector and what has lead to this development?To answer ...