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Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months by brians on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @02:11PM (#11622932)
You might—I do. Your inverter won't power the house when the grid supply is down. Why? Well, because if the grid supply's down, it's probably because there's a line down somewhere. Therefore there's a lineman trying to pick that line up somewhere. He's going to be handling both ends of a broken, downed line. The generator-side line is tagged out, that's safe. The house-side line? Well, that's up to you—and so your equipment will deactivate to avoid creating a safety hazard for grid maintenance staff.
Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months by maxerickson on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @02:27PM (#11623052)
An auxiliary grid independent outlet is apparently becoming a feature on newer inverters:

http://www.sma-america.com/newsroom/current-news/news-detail...

A generator probably beats a lot of battery systems (which along with the right inverter and a transfer switch is another way to use the solar for backup power).