In response to a post I wrote earlier today about local power cost woes I tried to get a little creative and briefly explored the possibilities of using some other power source than our standard community power company. The Nellis Air Force Base announced it would be building a huge solar facility on its grounds and would produce 30% of the needed power with those panels. So, what does it take to power a home with solar panels? I turned to the clever How Stuff Works for the answer: http://home.howstuffworks.com/question418.htm
Currently, a resident would have to remain in a home for quite some time to recouperate the costs. I imagine that in some future the costs will decrease and power companies will be paying us for pushing power back into their grid. I look forward to that day.
