If you are in the US, unaffordable residential solar is by design. First, there's the fragmented permitting scheme, second there's the boom-and-bust regulatory

If you are in the US, unaffordable residential solar is by design. First, there's the fragmented permitting scheme, second there's the boom-and-bust regulatory process of making it a financial winner or loser based on the PUC and utility whims of the years (and typically the utility wins and solar is uneconomical). This means that the successful solar installers are those that swoop in to a state/region when solar is a good financial idea, and install a ton, until it's made less of a good idea by the PUC. Then the solar installer needs to move on to other areas. The installers who succeed in this environment are the ones who spend a ton of money on customer acquisition; a few years ago I heard this was north of 30% of the costs of solar installers. Australia does it right. First, they allow a global free market of panels, second they have uniform and cheap permitting, third they have consistent policy on interconnection of the panels to the grid. IIRC US residential solar is typically >$3/kw, and it's usually $1/kW or less in Australia.