>The solar panels are effectively free, because they will pay for themselves in energy savings By that argument, anything with a return on investment is 'free'

>The solar panels are effectively free, because they will pay for themselves in energy savings By that argument, anything with a return on investment is 'free'. The problem here is that you are forcing new homeowners to be forced into investment with a certain ROI that may not be where they want to spend their money. Maybe a family would have benefitted more by using that money to send one of their children to a better school.