[dirtboy]

As solar technology gets dramatically cheaper, tens of thousands of Americans are putting photovoltaic panels up on their roofs, generating their own power. At the same time, 43 states and Washington DC have "net metering" laws that allow solar-powered households to sell their excess electricity back to the grid at retail prices.

This creates an issue when the sun goes down. Utilities will have to increase on-demand generation capacity to make up for the drop-off. Germany is building six coal-fired plants precisely for that reason. They even burn firewood for electric generation because firewood is classified as a renewable.

[Utilizer]

You make a good point, and now I am trying to think of a way to add on some sort of boiler to an external burner to generate at least a bit of electricity along with heat for this upcoming winter.

Perhaps a bit more research into the matter is called for...

[arthurus]

If you do solar with a 12 volt system and keep good old fashioned lead acid batteries for storeage and generation at night and in bad weather you come out ahead all around. Personally if I could afford it I would have rooftop solar with batteries and a 6000 or so watt NatGas generator for backup. When hurricanes take out the electric system the gas usually stays on.