My friend lives in Oregon. While he works for Intel, he has very good knowledge of photovoltaics (solar panels, etc.) and has been installing a pretty massive system for his house out there.
I'm a big believer in this as a technology. The sun is showering us with energy all day long and it's not the consumable resource that fossil fuels are.
Unfortunately, though, the space needed to power a house of any real size is daunting to the average plot of land, particularly if you have been witness to the latest developments in any suburban district. In other words, say goodbye to that pool you were planning.
Advancements will probably be made one day that increase PV panel efficiency by an order of magnitude (this is a guess on my part) and when that happens, I'm all over it.
Link: Ralph's Installation.
