I'm no expert, but...
There are two main types of solar. One is passive, and is rarely being referred to when people discuss it in broad, environmental policy issues. This includes things like architecture with a lot of window surface being on the southside of the house (in the northern hemisphere), and trapping solar heat to heat water. The other, pv cells, is way more complicated. Typically, it is not really cost effective, unfortunately. However, the costs are coming down, some areas offer subsidies and tax breaks as incentive, and over time ( a decade or so, often) it will begin to save you money.
And if you're interested, Scientific American had an article a while back about how the Japanese space agency is working up plans for space solar power. This is obviously irrelevant to whether solar is something you would want to look into, but it is interesting: Essentially, they launch a big panel into space that focuses the rays and sends them to a receiving station on earth.
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