[lampenrad]

No, for a long time Germany was the only significant solar market in the world. German tax payers and individuals spent billions when it was still far from economical, jump starting the whole industry:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-domi...

>The timeline of China’s rise began in the late 1990s when Germany, overwhelmed by the domestic response to a government incentive program to promote rooftop solar panels, provided the capital, technology and experts to lure China into making solar panels to meet the German demand.

>China, according to Chung, had “dabbled” in solar energy only as a source of electricity to help impoverished rural areas remote from its power grid. But then some of its pioneering companies became intrigued by the income that manufacturing solar panels for export to Germany might bring in.

>China then decided to follow Germany’s lead again, developing its own “feed-in tariff” that paid handsome prices for electricity generated by rooftop solar. The result was a surge in domestic demand for solar.

By PV Watt per capita Germany is still number one by a large margin at 511 (Japan is second with 336, China is at 56).