And, unless things have changed dramatically in the past few years, most houses can't generate sufficient power to supply the (current) average need in that house. A single floor house (ranch for example) might stand a chance. Multiple floors will have more space to heat/cool as well as many more lights and devices but still have the same roof area as a single floor home would. Then you get into apartments and the roof to living area ratio drops like a rock. Also, many people have these things called trees. They have a nasty habit of blocking sunlight (which is why people plant them...shade). And it gets worse the farther from the equator you are. For folks up here in Wisconsin, solar power is extremely inefficient (and thats being polite). The sun strikes this part of the earth as a much lower angle and thus travels through far more of the atmosphere limiting its energy radiation. That coupled with winter for 9 months (solar panels covered fully or partially with snow and ice) makes them a total waste of money.

Would they help? Certainly. In most cases they could supply at least a partial amount of power consumed by a home. Totally replace it? No. Not even close right now. In time, yes perhaps.

So, while mandating a solar panel install sounds like a good idea, its not.

What I would like to see is something along the lines of what I saw in a movie last winter. Wish I could recall the movie name. It was about a kid who investigates the mysteries around an inventor. Anyway, at the climax, its revieled that his greatest invention was a tree (actually 3 IIRC) that has leaves that generate power from sunlight. Trees have MASSIVE surface area for sunlight to fall on and thus generate energy. Imagine a tree (man made obviously) that had leaves that were really solar cells. And how nice it would be if it looked like a real tree. Nothing obtrusive. It would produce shade like a real tree but also supply electricity for the bug zapper and lights hanging from its limbs. We are close to this already with flexible panels. Just a litte more work in that area and it could be done within a few years.