I wanted to find out who is using solar power. In this post I break down the demographics.
For my first bit of research for my solar project I thought it might be nice to see who uses solar power. If I know who is using it then I will have a pretty good idea who might be reading this blog.
I found a great source for this at the HomePower Magazine.
“Male: 93.5%
Female: 6.5%
Average Age: 43.3
Undergraduate Degree or higher: 60.1%
Income: $55-$59K 11.4%, $60K-$69K 9.3%, $70K plus 39%
Homeowner: 84.8%
Location: Remote 5.2%, Rural 34.2%, Suburban 36.5%, Urban 22.2%, Mobile 1.9%
Utility Connected: Yes 86.0%, No 14.0%”
If you get a chance HomePower.com is a pretty cool magazine. I love the write ups they do on each solar system – their flow diagrams are the best in the industry that I have seen so far.
For the demographics information above keep in mind that HomePower Magazine covers a range of topics including wind power so these numbers are not just for solar power users.
I won’t disclose how much money I make but I can tell you that I fit the above profile of a solar user pretty well.
I live in a suburban area so it is nice to see that a large percentage of solar users live in a neighborhood like mine. But I have fears about my HOA research, I am hoping they don’t have tons of restrictions for solar power.
I contacted HomePower before publishing this post and they wanted to add:
“Hi Dave. Those are Home Power reader statistics, not stats for those that use RE.
As far as I know, there is no correlation between the two, other than by assumption. In fact, we have recently come across information that indicates that female purchasers of RE systems is a LOT greater than the number of female readers we have.”
I believe in the quote that “RE” is “Renewable Energy”.
Thanks for the information. I run a renewable energy company out of Williamsport, PA. I was interested in finding out where the market is for the systems I install. We also subscribe to Home Power magazine.