Actually, in some states you can be refunded the majority of the cost of putting in solar panels on your home. IIRC, in Illinois you can get back something like 60-80% of the cost of the installation from the gov't and/or Com-Ed. I had to deal a little with this last year (I work at a power utility), it doesn't seem like such a bad idea when you get back $7000 for spending $10000 on 'alternitive' energy sources. -