This is a cursory overview. More to come.

There several ways to get solar power for your home.
Originally homeowners purchased their own systems, which reduced their electric bill and generated income from SREC's (Solar Renewable Energy Certificates) in states like New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Massachusetts.

The most popular systems as of 2014 were third party owned. They install the system for free.

In Q1 2014, more than 50 percent of New York's distributed generation systems were third-party owned (Lease or PPA, see below), and in California, Arizona and Colorado, 69 to 81 percent of installed distributed generation systems were third-party owned.
The installation is free. You get reduced electric bills, but the third party gets the SRECs.

These options are still evolving and differ from state to state. I'm currently looking for a good web page which explains them all.

• Purchase:
  With Wholesale Solar's current pricing (Jan. 2015), a medium sized gridtie system that generates about 815 kWh a month would cost about $10,500 BEFORE the 30% federal tax credit and rebates offered by your state or utility company.
• Lease
  You pay by the month.
• PPA - A solar power purchase agreement
  Pay by kWh
  You can purchase the system any time after year five.
  See Solar Power Purchase Agreements | SEIA

Net metering, which is available in 44 states. Net metering allows solar-system owners to offset on a one-for-one basis the energy they receive from the electric grid with the solar power they generate on their roof.

"According to a recent Energy Department-backed study at North Carolina State University, installing a fully financed, average-size rooftop solar system will reduce energy costs for 93% of the single-family households in the 50 largest American cities today.

The primary reason these small solar systems are cost-effective, however, is that they're heavily subsidized."
Everyone else is paying for this.

On May 5, 2015 however, an interdisciplinary group of researchers and professors at MIT released a study about the future of solar energy and concluded that net metering is inefficient and should be redesigned.

Large scale solar systems are more efficient than the rooftop systems.

* Google Search for the WSJ article and you won't have to pay.

Terms: 
GTPV - Grid Tied Photovoltaic Solar Power System
Net metering -offset on a one-for-one basis the energy you receive from the electric grid
                with the solar power you generate on your roof.
PPA - Solar power purchase agreement
RPS - Renewable Portfolio Standard 
SREC - Solar Renewable Energy Certificate
    Carbon credits generated from your solar panel installation .