"Germany made its decision at the end of the last millennium to take this course and today it is one of the leading industrial nations in the renewable energy sources sector. The guarantor for this success is the Renewable Energy Sources Act (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz, EEG), which came into effect on 1 April 2000. The EEG introduced a fundamental change in energy supply: every citizen can now become an energy producer." (Quoted from paper)