I don’t understand. How is paying $10,000 or more cheaper than using the electricity provided by my local electric company? The break even point is probably 5 years if you really can install everything but $10,000.

The opportunity cost of that $10,000 is, let’s say 5% per year on avg, or $2500 over 5 years (without compounding which would skew this even further against panels)

The solar system should last 25 years. That’s about 2c/kWh.

With your electric utility, after all the additional fees, you’re probably at at least 15c/kWh.

Storage simply needs to cost less than 13c/kWh to make economic sense.

Also, 2c/kWh is a hedge against inflation. Utility prices go up not down.

Right, it just depends on the numbers. Taxes and credits have a lot to do with it. For example, a $10k (after credits) system might save at averaged $1200/year accounting for production lost, increasing a bit over time due to utility hikes. After 20 years, assuming the system is now worthless, that will compare similarly to an 8% stock market return plus initial capital after capital gains taxes. The solar system would return in a narrower range of performance than the stock market return.