I'm not a greenie at heart, but I try to be a good steward of the environment. It comes with farming. However, due to the state of things, we decided to build a solar system that would completely power our small but energy efficient farmhouse - A/C included. I'm a "do it yourself" guy, and my son is an electrician who owns a small electrical company, so we went for it. The 13KW system is up and running and we are still putting the final tweaks on it. For someone who has never dealt with solar before, this was no easy task. And, even with a system this size, it takes up a lot of real estate. It took more panels than would fit on the roof of the house, just to completely power the house and take us off the grid. So, we used ground mounts. And, it took a small climate-controlled building to hold the inverters, batteries, and a lot of wiring. And, what was a fairly pristine looking yard is now full of trenches, conduit, and wiring. It's going to be awhile before I get it to the point where I can mow it again. Even though my son donated his time, wiring, and a lot of other infrastructure components, it still cost me about 25K out of pocket. I can't imagine having to pay a solar company to come out and provide a system like this "turn key." But, we did use the good stuff, and it will take us completely off the grid, barring a few overcast days here and there. It will take eight years for this system to pay for itself. Had a solar company come in and do it turn-key, we would be looking at many more years to break even.
The place I'm going with this, is most people mistakenly think that a few well-placed solar panels on the roof, or a windmill here or there is going to wean us off of fossil fuels. They have no idea what it would really take. Solar and wind won't make it happen. It's going to take nuclear on a big scale. Or, just keep drilling.
You can look at your situation two ways...business and freedom. So it takes you 8 years to get your money back and to break even...well that sucks. On the otherhand you are already “rich”. If things go to crud, and standard grids and power goes down for months or years and normal money and economic systems go haywire so that the old ways at looking at expenses and break even points suddenly become meaningless, you have a powered house. You better have friendly neighbors and the means to defend it.
You are intrinsically in a better place, even if you lament about ‘getting your money back over 8 years’. What price is grid independence worth to you?