Solar here: I met someone at a show who installed solar in a location in the mountains (near Dahlonega, I believe) that wasn't near the grid. Cost to install was $25-30K for this particular size home/cabin. It's structured so that the extra electricity available or that was being generated and either stored or actively used was sold back to the Georgia Power grid, effectively providing a credit. I remember this at a home show we attended in 2007 or so (forgot the exact date). The R.O.I.....was, I think at that time for the type of solar heating provided, was more than ten years - I wish I could accurately remember the ROI, but it was at least 10 to 12 years. If the grid will credit your bill and no bs is issued at billing time to make that credit effectively nil or worse, meaningless....that would be a bigger incentive. My overall dream since 1967 was to see suburbs with either individual solar and maybe wind-supplemented (small vanes and lots of gearing) energy generation. Or, I was hoping to see a single source station supplementing grid-energy home and business needs. That's asking to replace the current grid solutions with smaller alternate energy solutions, but I would like to see it happen at the individual home level. Recently, I read there's something possibly coming(we'll see, tech news is always a July 4th celebration before the event), where the construction of solar cells will not be silicone derived, but from other materials. I forgot the specifics, but beyond the cost, there's much more involved to get the grid to contribute back for any excess energy a family home, cluster of family homes(thinking subdivision credit), or business becomes a promise, in every state. Just my non-engineer thoughts here ..so I understand that others have more on-hands knowledge on the subject.
Hope that ANCIENT reference isn't lost on your young self...
