With solar I'm worried about them changing rates (the way bills are calculated). They have already changed net metering in Hawaii and other places to make it less beneficial to have solar.
Yeah, definitely have to read the fine print of your utility's net metering contract, and there's no guarantee that solar buyback rates may change in future (electric rates will likely increase too).
The other type of system I considered was a
plug-in solar panel system, which uses a normal outdoor power outlet, bypasses utility net metering and permitting process, but only offsets current power draw usage, i.e. meter won't spin backwards if there's excess generation.
Or potentially going off-grid in future with battery backup (about $8k) should the utility company become totally unreasonable and won't credit anything for solar.