Just as a single data point, my parents, who live in rural upstate NY, installed solar panels on a portion of their (connected-to-the-house) barn's roof a few years ago. Aside from times when they're literally covered in snow (which is rare, due to their temperature), they're producing power, and even in the depths of winter they produce plenty enough to offset a huge chunk of their electric bill (and in the summer, there are days and weeks at a time where they're producing more than they need).

I can't speak for the specifics of environmental impact, because I don't know the details for their panels, nor how one calculates such uneven things (how do you subtract electricity generated from the various kinds of environmental damage done to mine and refine the various rare minerals in solar panels...?), but at least economically, they're a huge win.