Eric, that may be true now, but in a year when the new regs take effect in California, the potential market for them drops by 37 million people (not sure how many housing "units" that equates to)... or put another way, there are more people in California than 30-something countries in the world (out of 250-300ish total countries, depending on who is counting/counted)... maybe that's a small percentage of the total market, but I'd wager that if one ranks per capita wealth of those top 30-ish countries and compare it to California, the state would rise significantly... say what you will, but most companies would not like seeing that many potential customers face new economic hurdles that would cut into potential sales down the road... as far as I can tell, rooftop solar momentum is just now reaching "critical mass" and dropping California from the list might slow it down more than raw numbers might suggest when factoring in actual numbers of people who can actually afford to "invest" in something with a 15-20 year payoff vs. one that up to now was more like 5-10 yrs.
Countries with more population than California include Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Congo, Burma (or whatever it's called now), Columbia, Tanzania, Kenya, Algeria, Sudan... etc. I'm thinking the above countries don't represent much in the way of real potential PV buyers to any significant degree... the sheer numbers of people in India and China are daunting, but how many of them actually own a home, let alone have the money AND incentive to install rooftop solar? |
