Awesome post. Solar is on the list here. But with the recent roof repairs on our garage and house with shingle replacement (same color and style as yours) $20+k also an AC (4 ton) replacement. With two stages of uv light sterilization just shy of $15 k
Looks like the solar will have to wait.
We may go with a small generac system. (Propane) Our neighbors have one and it seems to do well
We had a Generac propane Backup Generator in Vermont. It worked very well, just not as good a long term investment. You may still want to talk to a couple solar companies. We were able to finance ours at 3.9% (no pre-payment penalty) so that we can start reducing the electric bill now, and then pay it down with bulk payoff later instead of paying the large amount up front. Makes it a bit higher cost than paying up front, but was still the better value for us at this location. They wanted $20K for the Generator/Install plus more for the additional propane tank here without the same delayed cost options.. Was one of our secondary reasons for going this route to avoid the large upfront after all the other repairs and upgrades we had to do already.