This was one of my major disappointments when I looked into solar the first time. I don't want to stick panels on top of my house that are basically just feeding back into the grid. I want to have panels that first feed my house, and maybe if there's extra feed it into the grid, but if the grid goes down I still have a more-or-less functional house. A big part of solar's value to me is the renewable, off-grid backup power. Solar has the interesting and useful characteristic that it keeps working even if things have really gone to pot and you've even lost gas and water for some reason. Having lots of houses like this scattered all over the place greatly increases civilizational resilience. (That is, I'm not so much trying to plan for "The End Of The World" just for me
personally with my own solar install, but want the resilience at the societal level, and might be willing to pay to help it along.)
If solar's just going to feed back into the grid, I might as well just let the utility companies manage it themselves. It's more efficient than anything I can do myself.
Unfortunately, it seems like the way solar works helps that goal much less than I'd like. I hardly need multiple kilowatts of power backing a single functional outlet that almost seems begrudgingly provided.
I'd be interested in anyone who has experience in perhaps managing to set their house up the way I describe, what magic words to Google or say to installers to talk about this, and how much more money it may have been.