You can get 1500W solar panels for about $2000 direct from china, perhaps even cheaper. From memory they can run about 800W 24 hours, from 12 hours of sun light.
They are big too, thats 6 foot by 3 foot i believe, it would be sitting in your back yard taking a bit of room. If you had enough room, you could setup 20 or 100 of these, i bet you could get them cheaper if you buy in bulk from china.
And you might make more money selling the electricity, but mining gives you the op to earn alot more in the future if bitcoin and altcoins really take off.
I think its possible to get a good ROI, but expensive to start.
I am going to buy a 60w or 300W solar panel just for fun and stick a rasperry PI on it with a few USB miners or something to mine altcoins, not expecting a ROI but just for fun it will be cool, you can get them from china for about 100 bucks or less.
Yes I can get you solar panels for about $1/watt including shipping here in N. America, with at least a 20 year manufacturers warranty. The 1500watt modules are a bit bigger than most people can comfortably carry. 180watts to 400watts is what most prefer, for ease of handling.
Edit: Forgot to mention that you can buy the solar panels with bitcoin