There is a lot to consider with the decisions of site generated power (solar, wind, hydro, etc.), and an important thing to know is that you will likely spend more money for each kWh produced by that system than you would if you purchase power from the grid. Especially if you install a small system for a pool or as supplemental power. When you divide the cost of the system by the number of kWh that you will use over the life of the system or your occupancy in the home, it is often many times more per kWh to have the site generated power. This is mostly true in America where grid power is relatively inexpensive compared to the rest of the world. On a larger scale, solar makes financial sense. Like, for a large residential development, commercial project or an entire city, state or country.

We've designed and built net-zero, zero energy and completely off-grid homes, and it always costs more to generate electricity on-site than to buy it from the grid.

Does this help? Let me know if you have any questions about this. We have quite a bit of experience with this.

Chris

This is a complicated decision and I recommend you do a lot of reading to figure out what is best for your situation. There are different solar systems for different uses, and what you would install for a pool is much different than what you would use to generate electricity. In particular, with a pool, you can use black pipe technology which is simply water being circulated through black panels which heat up the water directly through thermal transfer...no need for fancy technology, much cheaper to install, and a speedy payback period. On the other hand, if you want to offset some of your electric power needs from the utility, then you need solar panels. And if you want to store energy that you generate during the day for use at night when the sun is no longer shining (and as a backup in case of a power failure), then you need to investigate an electric storage system, like Tesla's Powerwall. It's great if you decide to utilize solar power if it makes sense economically, but the costs for these different systems vary by large amounts. So you have to decide on your objectives and assess if you are going to be in the home long enough for some of these options to make economic sense to you. You definitely live in a part of the country where the economics are good for solar; you just need to figure out what's right for you.

"The important thing to know is that you will likely spend more money for each kWh produced by that system than you would if you purchase power from the grid."
This is the most ridiculous thing I've read from someone that claims to understand how these systems work, and especially makes a living doing so!!!

I will give them that the initial cost will be higher, but the total cost is far less. A number used for Solar panel production cost has been calculated by the industry of $0.06 per KW.
We are almost net-zero depending on how cold it gets in Jan and Feb, plus I drive free with my plug-in hybrid and our home is 100% electric. This means we pay no electric bill except a fee to be a customer of the local utility.
Our system will have fully paid for itself next year after 7 years of service. In the next 20 years, we will stand to save over $48,000 on electric if the cost stays the same for 20 years which we know it will only go up, saving us, even more, money.