They don’t rely on a government subsidy. Some smaller installers will stumble and fail, but Salacity and others are planning for subsidies to end and working hard to bring prices down. Even in 2012 some in the industry were calling for an end to the subsidies: http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/04/are-subsidies-holding-ba… The subsidies are not needed as much now since the cost of solar is competitive with fossil fuels - and still dropping.
Once solar is cheaper than fossil fuels - and in many places such as California & Hawaii it already is - expect mass adoption. Why do you think the utilities are in such a panic and setting extortionate fees in desperation?
As for the very negative view, which touted Sun Power replacing SolarCity rooftops after 20 years. Well sure new panels might be more efficient and cost less - but cost less than the panels already installed on your roof? No matter how cheap the new panels are, the ones you already have are cheaper!
Solarcity expects massive expansion of solar deployments. That’s why they’re building their own factory in New York. Why? Because they can not only bring their costs down, but simply because they expect to need the huge capacity.
One of the research topics Saul espouses is to listen to recent conference calls and judge how the execs see the company’s future. The Salacity guys see incredible opportunities ahead: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/another-giga-pla…
“The goal is to be competitive with no subsidies at all”
“We can now control the installed cost per kilowatt-hour. If you do that, the market is infinite for the next 30 or 40 years”
Glad to have found this board (thanks for everyone’s efforts here!),
Graham