I just received my first electric bill with some electrical usage, so I figured it was a good time for an update. The system, with rolled over credits, kept us from needing to purchase any electricity until now (service period 11/12~12/15). I have been keeping a running total of our savings, and so far we have saved about $143 on our electricity bills from the time the system was turned on, July 3, 2014.
Also did a test run on our taxes, looks like it will be no problem getting our full solar credits applied per the original post. I had some misunderstanding about how the non-refundable credits work. It doesn't really matter how much was withheld from our checks, as long as the amount of tax we owe is greater than the amount of the credit, we can use the full credit.
From Investopedia "DEFINITION of 'Non-Refundable Tax Credit': A tax credit that can't reduce the amount of tax owed to less than zero."