I started planning to go off grid in the late/mid nineties. I was able to cut the natural gas off before 2000. Solar took longer, it was once unbelievably expensive. I bought my first panels in 2000, used at the time, for a price that will cause a fit of uncontrolled swearing if I speak of it. That first array was just one kw. I had to build a motorized frame just so I could aim it to the sun. 1kw is not a lot of power but we get a lot of sun in Alberta so I was living large right up to mid sept but then the shorter darker days of winter came and did not leave until mid/late march. The generator had to run, or contribute some power most every day in the oct to March period of winter. Power use was tight in the winter months. A few years later I added a few more used (12 volt) panels, bringing me up to 1800 watts. I was getting by but winter production still sucked. Then, I can't remember the year for sure, I think it was 2011-2012 and new Panel prices dropped to 58 cents a watt, and that was for top of the line Canadian production panels. Canadian Solar 225 watt panels. I bought 4 pallets, 5000 watts per pallet. I kept 8000 watts for myself, and resold the rest for nearly double what I had paid. So I made out ok on the deal. Now I had serious power production. Winter generator run time now can start up early DEC but ends roughly Jan 20th. So roughly 6-7 weeks when the generator runs, some time a little sometimes A lot. Over all that's not bad though it will get even better when I clear some trees. The next big change was Lifepo4 prices falling to working man price levels. About 4 years ago I made the switch, 280amphr  12 volt batteries all in parallel giving me 20kwhrs of storage. My usage is roughly 6kwhrs a day, so I have plenty. So cheap solar panels were the first big game changer, then second, these new Lifepo4 batteries. I have not had to change my system voltage, I am still at 12 volts, I find it still works fine for me.