I'm currently using solar panels and a battery to get power completely off grid. When I had power service, it cost $30+/mo just to connect to the grid which, on average, was half of my power bill.
Grid-connected solar panels could only cut my bill in half, but going off grid completely eliminated it.<p>The more people that have solar power, the more the utility has to increase the grid connection charge. The higher it gets, the more likely customers are too get a big enough battery and go completely off grid, requiring even higher grid connection charges.<p>Eventually there won't be enough customers left to pay for the grid, and the whole market will have to go through a lot of turmoil to end up with something that serves major power users with a probably more-direct connection to power generators. Either that, or we'll implement some kind of protectionist regulation and end up with something much less efficient.