Ultimately, government (or their captive power company) can do a whole lot to change incentives around through surcharges, punitive rates, incentives, and whatnot. In the U.S., there are various tax breaks if you install solar. A buddy of mine in Napa has rates comparable to what you've described in Mexico, where if your electrical usage goes over a threshold, your price goes up. With his new solar system, when he's selling power back to the grid, that number offsets his usage from the grid and keeps him out of the punitive rates.

I'm intrigued by the companies who "rent your roof" and give you some money back. That's attractive for a lot of reasons, not least that you don't have to put any money up front. You don't see much of this happening in Houston, even though we get lots of sunlight. I figure our problem is that the "deregulated" Texas electrical market, where you buy power from any one of hundreds of companies who buy power wholesale and virtually sell it back to you for a profit. There's a separate company who "delivers" the power, but you're not directly their customer. In this universe, it's quite complicated to sort out how you might sell power back. To whom? For what price? Do I have to buy power at the retail price and sell it at the wholesale spot-market price? Can I sell my power to somebody different from whom I buy it?