[mikewarot]

Those trees are going to block the solar panels. If they're in series, blocking any one of the cuts your power for all of them.

I'm fortunate in that I'm on a ridge, well above the average terrain, in an area (SE of Chicago) that is likely to remain the same as far as average conditions, given global climate change. We've got potable municipal Lake Michigan water.

The trees around the house help keep it cool, but the alignment of our house makes it unfriendly to solar power.

If I were younger, I'd get a ground sourced heat pump to cut the heating bills, and put up solar, despite the alignment of our home. The trees on the south side of the house would go.