I considered buying solar panels for my house, until I saw the price tag. Apparently I’m not alone.

Duke Energy wants to change that with an out of the box pilot program that the utility hopes to launch in North Carolina, pending state regulatory approval.

Here’s how it would work: You volunteer the roof of your home or business. Duke Energy installs solar panels free of charge. The utility pays you a small fee for “renting” your roof, but owns all the electricity the panels generate — which goes directly into the power grid.

Dave Scanzoni, Duke Energy’s communications director, says the program would allow the utility to study “distributive generation, which means instead of a major base load power plant, having many small, mini power plants that would be largely distributed in a wide service area.”

Another way to look at it: Many power consumers would become, in a sense, power generators.

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