I’m glad to hear that (that you will be independent).
What do you think it would take to make your neighborhood, township the same?
I’m not being contrarian, just curious. What do you think it would take to convert a percentage of energy users to go solar?
Solar isn't what they'd like it to be. I also have solar. Solar assisted heating/cooling, a solar hot water heater and a photo voltaic (PV) array. And I live in FL. The first two knocked my electric bill down by between 60 - 70% (went live 8/2014). Other things I also did to knock the bill down were, adding insulation to the attic crawl space, changing out the lights to LED, changing windows and sliders to insulated ones and changing out the pool pump to a variable speed pump. The PV - a 5kW system (20 panels) did the least for my bill. PV efficiency degrades every year by some percent and it isn't that efficient to begin with - maybe 20%? I've noticed that with the same weather circumstances to a year ago the panels produce about 2 to 3% less than they did when they were new a year ago (went live 1/2015). I've been told the life expectancy on solar panels is about 25 years.
I bought because the combination had about a 7 year payback (with income tax credits of 30% rebate of price) and it is a big selling point for the house if I decide to get rid of it.
Last month I owed about $30 in electricity costs, the previous two months they owed me about a total of $1.10, I sent them more than I used both months. I've been watching this industry for well over a decade and IMO PV just isn't ready for prime time.