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Passive and Active
To confuse people a little more - we will introduce something else which is similar to ROI for solar systems. It's called Solar Savings Fraction. It's simply the the amount of energy provided from the solar system divided by the total energy required. Wikipedia gives an easy further explanation.
Passive solar design means that the house has design elements, or is designed entirely, to take advantage of the environmental to make the house heat and cool more effectively. Essentially, there is nothing mechanical about passive solar design - it's built into the house. US Department of Energy has some basic definitions of what this entails.
Active Solar Design is the converse of passive in that there's mechanical elements such as solar collectors and pumps have a significantly higher Solar Savings Fraction as the function is more direct and efficient.
To give you some costs solar panels, it's about $5 per watt as a US average. The new ink-based technology as briefly described in our solar-concepts section, is aiming for 50 cents per watt. By comparison, coal-power comes in at around $1 per watt. These are flat numbers not taking into consideration incentives, availability, other energy availability, etc.
Other resources for Active Solar:
Energy Systems Research based in UK
A Canadian solar company offering useful information
Average sun collection by state / map and other information
Home power-usage chart - good for reference
An article about businesses turning to solar for various key reasons
As mentioned before, there are a handful of web-based applications available to determine whether solar power is right for you in your location. From maps of installed panels to interactive maps showing solar and earning potential based on roof size, roof angle/orientation, rebates, and carbon savings - there's a wealth of information These are free, regional and country-wide, and is a perfect start to this exploration:
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