Let me start off by saying that in my opinion what is driving solar energy worldwide is all about job creation. That's what's driving it. There have been about a million jobs created in China in the last decade in solar.
On May 10, 2006, I was at a solar conference and was approached by the German government. They had heard about our innovative technology, in which my previous company had invested several million dollars at the University of Toronto. They said they'd like us to build our solar factory in Germany. I said that was really nice, but Germany was a bit of a distance. They said, “No, you don't understand: we'll give you half the money”. I asked how much half the money was. They said that up to 50 million euros they'd give me half the money, and after that they'd back it off a bit. I said, “You mean you're going to give a little Canadian company, with 10 employees, 25 million euros to come over to Germany and create 200 jobs?” Yes, they said.
Guess what we did. We did that. I created 200 jobs in Germany and raised over $100 million on the stock market. One of the big problems that I had is that I didn't think big enough, because this industry is going faster than even the experts believe. For example, in 2005, I was at a solar conference, and the consensus in 2005 was that the market in 2010 would be 3.3 to 3.9 gigawatts of power installed, in 2010. One of the big analysts said, “No, I think it's 6 gigawatts”. In the Q and A, Winfried Hoffmann, who I know—I know both these people—got into a big argument with Mike Rogol, saying: “How could you say that? That's not credible. The politicians won't believe us. We have to be conservative. We think we should be in the 3 to 4 gigawatts”. So they had a big argument.