The price of having such a solar system with the ability to defend such a system and home when society has crashed is what I was trying to point out or even when a major regional disaster will affect macro power systems for a time. Having the ability to produce useable power for lights and small tools(even if there isn’t enough juice for the whole house heaters or freezers)and well pumps is the intrinsic payoff of self sufficiency which is worth more than gold. One would have to have the means of defending it.
Some get stuck stuck on the notion of “payoff of a solar system” vs normal stable economy and society prices for traditional electric and gas. Sure in normal times one would take years to recoup the costs of a solar power system and upkeep especially in trying to resell power back into the grid. That is not why people buy such systems. You buy such systems that will allow at least basic functions when the world around you goes to hell but with the notion that there might be some sort of future recovery of sorts and survival...expecially for younger families with kids. Thus having a functional system like that will pay for itself in the having of such a system when there is nothing else available.
You just described one of the main reasons we have a large solar system for our home, and why one of our two cars is an EV (because I can't produce my own gasoline for my gas pickup if the SHTF like I can produce my own power for my EV, at least for local driving).
IMHO, most preppers who prep for a total doomsday scenario aren't prepping for the most probable scenario: the left slow boiling us into control. And the left has made it clear that energy prices are their main weapon of choice. So to me, a large solar array in an all-electric home and doing most of our driving in our EV (25K miles per year, with 15K of them charged at home), having power bills of only $80/month on average --- means my wife and I can enjoy life as always. The Dims' warmageddon cult and their energy price inflation hardly impacts our budget (the 17% of our power I have to pull from the grid, plus what little gasoline we buy for what little we drive the gas pickup, plus driving on long trips requiring us to buy gas or power). Thus less chance my wife will one day ask that we bow to the left's social credit score god just to have the comfortable life we used to have.