My friend in San Diego county was looking into getting solar panels and he was telling me it's a long term gamble for possibly saving money. Solar panels forces

My friend in San Diego county was looking into getting solar panels and he was telling me it's a long term gamble for possibly saving money. Solar panels forces him onto the local utilities solar plan, which raises the cost of each kwh from the grid by 10%. If he produced surplus energy the credit only offsets 1/15th the cost of each kwh. The result is the upfront cost is quite big, he would need enough solar panels to power everything and batteries to power his house through the night. Now it's a gamble between his system breaking or degrading, local utility rate increases, being required to sell and move, or if he just invested that large chunk into a relatively safe investment like a S&P index over the next 12 years.