[TexasEcon23]

>>$10-20k is very little a 30 year mortgage. If you're buying an expensive house than that then you can definitely afford the baseline cost of solar panels. If you live in an area with high housing prices and can't afford to buy then you're renting, and the costs of solar installed on multifamily is shared across all tenants. The cost of solar panel production and installation will drop as processes become more efficient, and solar panel production costs are (were?) being halved every year or two so the $10-20k price tag will continue dropping despite tariffs.

That statement doesn't make sense. You have to compare the net present value of an upfront investment with the electricity savings over time. If you amortize that amount over 30 years it doesn't change the fact you made the upfront payment, you just pay the bank extra money (interest) for the privilege of differing payment.

>>Private solar energy will also reduce costs of maintaining a grid, reduce odds of widespread power failure, and reduce costs of environmental externalities of other forms of energy production. California is also pushing hard for electric vehicles. Solar powered electric vehicles reduce reliance on oil production and imports. I don't live in CA but it seems to me they're playing the long game by reducing government ownership/operation of energy systems while reducing the costs of energy for all Californians to a low equilibrium state that reflects the cost of solar panels, which will drop over time. I wish Texas were more interested in these kinds of programs rather than bathroom legislation.

None of that supports the claim that it is a worthwhile investment to install solar panels on homes. It doesn't follow logically at all. Externalities are the exact reason regulations exist. If you want to argue that the cost is worthwhile for society do it, but none of that has anything to do with the price to a homeowner of installing solar panels.

[heurist]

The upfront investment on a mortgage is the down payment, which can be as high or low as you want these days. Buying a house for $310k vs $300k works out to ~$100/month going from on a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage, $10k down (depending on interest rates). About $30k difference on total loan payments, or $1k/year, which at least for me in Texas is at the low end of much I pay for energy anyway. Plus you're not paying for residential energy (system maintenance aside), and maybe not gas if you're using an electric vehicle. You're not thinking about fluctuations in oil prices either, which will certainly increase over the next 30 years.

The societal benefit is a separate bonus, as you stated, but not one to ignore.