Prices of solar systems have come down a lot in the last 6 months and federal rebates are significantly higher.
You should be able to get 10,000W system with inverter, installation and maintenance for around $70,000.
California rebate is $2/per watt in most SDGE areas. Federal tax credit is 30%, no cap.
So your final cost should be somewhere around $35,000.
The system in Southern California should be able to produce around 13,000kWh per year, or enough to completely remove you from the top bracket and save you somewhere around $350 per month.
So your payback time would be 8.3 years. Panels should last around 25 years, so you would get 17 years of free electricity afterwards.
If you are in a high tax bracket and are able to finance this using a tax deductible loan, savings could be even higher.
Also, the calculation does not include any price increases by SDGE, like 8.2% increase they just passed for 2009.
