I have no knowledge of solar panels, but I'd tout the benefits of a wood burning stove. An inside stove will necessarily cause a bit of a mess, but unless you're living in a palace or have really, really bad airflow in your home, it will heat the whole place to livable temperature most of the time, completely eliminating your need for other heat. As MMM has remarked on several times in his blog posts, if you have a lot of mass (tile, stone, brick, etc.) once you get it warm, it will tend to stay warm all night too.
I have an outdoor furnace, and it was a slam dunk decision when I bought it. I live on a farm with over 100 acres of woods, so fuel wasn't an issue. Natural gas wasn't an option, and the house had propane, which got up to $2.50 a gallon at one point. I literally paid for the stove ($5400) in the first two years. Now, of course, propane is much cheaper, but I also spent the extra $100 to get the hot water heater pre-heating unit, and I have free hot water six months a year. Plus I get the satisfaction of a few days manual labor to boot. The only electricity used is the blower fan in my HVAC unit, and the water pump on the stove itself. I fill my stove every evening when I get home from work and that's it. Heat all winter, basically for free, not counting my time cutting wood (which I call time well spent anyway).