Phil, you have a lot of good questions of which I don't know the answers. As more and more homeowners convert to solar in this area of Southern California, it will have to be worked out to maintain the grid. We still will have a small monthly fee to stay connected to the grid which we will use at night (less than $10 a month).
Once batteries and inverters continue to improve, I hope to be totally grid-free if I live long enough. I wouldn't mind having a natural gas generator to use at night to charge the batteries if needed (if we had that type system).
We have something like 300+ days of sun so it made sense to use it as a power source.
I did not lease the solar panels, I paid all up front so that I could get the total 30% tax credit. They say 80% of the people lease their systems. If we leased for 20 yrs., the payment would have been $421 a month. My average utility bill is around $600 a month.
MM.
