GOOD NEWS FROM PLANET EARTH – What are clever ways to use the sun?

Solar energy is not only climate-friendly. It improves people’s lives – thanks in part to unusual ideas.

In a remote region of the Indonesian island of Flores, newly trained female solar technicians provide light for their village, replacing kerosene lamps that are harmful to their health. In Switzerland, an entrepreneur has devised a solar panel system that turns sewage treatment plants into power generators. Even bread baking with solar energy works, right up to the north of France – as proven by Europe’s first solar baker. Also in France, a winegrower protects his vines with solar panels. In doing so, he is preserving a piece of French culture. In the village of Schönau in the Black Forest, the Chernobyl disaster turned the entire power supply upside down. What once started as an action group against nuclear power is now a cooperative that supplies green electricity nationwide.

TEAM
Head writer: Tanja Winkler // Writers: Salim Butt-Lutz, Christian Heynen, Ingo Knopf, Claudia Schmitt, Hendrik S. Schmitt // Camera: Michael Kern, Sven Kiesche, Claudia Schmitt, Hendrik S. Schmitt, Dieter Stürmer, Frank van Vught // Motion design: Simon Schnellmann // Editing: Isabelle Albert, Jan Wilm Schmülling // Music: Thomas Wolter, Ralf Schurbohm // Narrators: Philipp Schepmann, Yvon Jansen // Sound mix: Florian Ebrecht // Research: Sina Klischat // Production manager: Katja Sträter // Producer: Oskar Köppen // Executive producers: Thomas Weidenbach, Sarah Zierul // Commissioning editors: Doris Fenske (BR), Katja Ferwagner (BR/Arte)

Produced by Längengrad Filmproduktion for BR in co-production with ARTE.