Why is your investment in clean energy not recoverable in the sales price of your house? The main reason to adopt home solar is environmental and ethical. While hydro may be low or zero carbon it does NOT come without environmental costs...collapsed salmon and steelhead runs, the extension of that collapse into surrounding wild lands adapted to the yearly influx of nutrients from the runs, the loss of bio-rich riparian corridors. You are totally right about buy back, and there are increased possibilities for making grid systems more robust through dispersed generation, particularly with improved home batteries and localized grids.

California suffers from wildfires caused by distribution lines through forested and brush choked areas, with global warming this hazard will be moving north. If conversion is a financial stretch then there are probably other ways to be a good environmental citizen, but if we don't all do what we can the future looks bleak for coming generations.