I just did a little research to see how many homes have computers. Here's an older chart that ends in 2003, the latest figures I found, you may be able to do better, is 68% of American homes had computers in 2010.
Thinking back to when I started with computers, I got my first real computer in 1985 (I built a Sinclair before 85), a "FatMac". Not many people had computers back then. It wasn't cheap and it didn't do much! I bought it to do EDA (electronic design automation) and had to literally make my own circuit board foot prints. Needless to say, it didn't work well. Most of my real work back then was on HP hand held calculators, some of you will remember the 41CV, I used an 11C which was pretty remarkable. It could write programs and I did all my electronics calculations on it. Before then we used slide rules and I remember college physics classes where everyone had a Pickett slide rule. You couldn't take a final exam without one! That was in the sixties and seventies.
Printed circuit boards back then were flimsy, at best. The better boards were made by companies like HP and Tektronix but all the Tek scopes were CRT, pretty much hand wired until semiconductors kicked in. That changed everything. The spiral since LSI (large scale integration) has been remarkable.
I worked on the first government computers in the late 60's, today my handheld calculator has tens of thousands of times more memory and ability. That gov. computer crashed constantly and the company that supplied them to the government had a top technician on site at all times. By the way, it took a whole room!
The transistor has changed this world completely. Mail, flight, medicine, manufacture, etc. etc. are only possible because of the transistor. A country without transistor technology could not win a war, regardless how large or powerful it is. Communication would still be by telephone but no cell phones, smart phones, no web and no home computers. Communications would be very slow because it would still require a good percentage of mechanics. The test instruments I use today rival those of even twenty years ago at a fraction of the cost. I get to talk to the designers of chips, get data sheets and application notes that never could happen without the transistor. Period.
Now think of that technology and think of the future. Is there any better way to solve our energy problems? Is there any other technology that can exceed its potential?
So those of those of you who think that PV won't work, think again, it's our best answer.... and it's a good one!
In the next 5 years you will see renewables take over. Electric cars, PV, LED lights with over 99% efficiencies , etc. You will see PV rise in homes the way computers did. New homes without PV will be unthinkable. You will see a transformed grid with interties as the norm and not the exception.
Rob