Originally Posted by
pennyhal2
I have solar panels on my roof and have not had an electric bill in years. You do still have to pay the electric company for the use of their wires...about $12 a month.
And you would have a battery bank and inverter if using electricity generated by the panels to power things in your home. Solar panels by themselves do not produce the end-usable power. Their output needs to be adjusted to charge the batteries, then the inverter turns the DC power of the batteries into AC power usable by standard household systems.
OP refers to missionary work, so likely there is no utility or existing wire at the location(s) in question.