The paper summarizes what we know about the acceleration processes on the Sun. Four different instabilities are distinguished: (1) One with purely thermal consequences giving rise to the origin of any flare. (2) A non-thermal process at the flash phase of flares giving rise to ∼ 100 keV electrons and protons, manifested through hard X-ray and impulsive microwave bursts (current interruption?). (3) An instability giving rise to streams of electrons, without accelerating protons, manifested by type III bursts (tearing-mode instability?). When (2) and (3) are linked, flare associated electron events in space are often recorded. (4) Finally an explosive instability produces a shock wave which manifests itself as a type II burst. This instability leads to a second-step acceleration of particles preaccelerated in (2) and gives origin to >10 MeV protons and relativistic electrons (probably stochastic acceleration).