Here's some legislation that could radically change the demand for solar electricity installations:
The Securing America's Energy Independence Act (S. 590, H.R. 550) would extend the federal solar tax credits through 2016 (instead of 2008).
More importantly, it would lift the cap from the current $2000-or-30% tax credit to a straight $3 per Watt for residential installations. That's huge!
The CA state rebate is currently ~$2.50 per AC Watt.

With installation quotes averaging around $9.50 per production Watt, these together could pay for more than half the homeowner cost.
(There's also an AMT exemption.)

The SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association) has a lot to gain, so they are pushing an Action Alert:
http://capwiz.com/re-action/issues/aler ... id=9328091

They have a one-page summary:
http://www.seia.org/ITC_One_Pager.pdf

And copies of the actuall bills:
http://www.seia.org/HR_550.pdf
http://www.seia.org/S_590.pdf

According to one installer I talked to (Stellar Solar), this bill has quite a few cosponsors and a reasonable chance of passing.

If it does, I don't expect panels to remain affordable for long.

Florida has a 4.00 watt rebate, I just completed a 5.1kw system and the rebate will pay for most of it.

With another 3.00 from the feds, that would make even turn-key systems close to free ... to bad there aren't panels for this as were forth in line to Japan, Germany and Spain ...

Unless of course Bush veto it saying it will harm Oil ...