What is the present and future demand for solar installations?
A5. In a recent Newsweek Web Exclusive article, (August 25, 2009), Matthew Phillips states that “Despite the bad economy, or maybe even because of it, the rooftop-solar industry is booming. Americans are increasingly becoming intrigued by the idea of turning their roofs into mini power plants and cutting their electric bills. In 2008, 33,500 rooftop solar systems were installed in the United States. This is a 63 percent increase over the amount of capacity installed in 2007. In California, the solar capital of the country, the increase was 95 percent. In addition, in an article published in late September ’09 in New Energy News, Solar Feeds and other media, Pike Research indicates that even in this slow economy there is still substantial growth expected in the Solar PV industry for many years to come with an increase in growth rate as the economy begins to improve. The article states: “Distributed Solar PV growth has been spearheaded in recent years by markets such as Germany, Japan, S
