As for actual advice, you might save some by buying components yourself and getting quotes just for installation.

You can buy panels for around 60c/watt, inverters for 30c/watt, and the balance of components for a few thousand on top of that. If labor is about $50/hr, you'll get about 3 man-days of work per $1,000. Most residential install crews are 3-4 people, and they can do a system in 1 day. Double or even triple that and you're still in the $3k-$4k range for install labor. $1.50/watt all in is do-able. Minus solar credit, and perhaps local credits, $1.00/watt is not unheard of.

If you can get equivalent of 5x system capacity in kWh per day, on a 10kW system that's 50kWh per day. 8c/kWh price would be $4-5/day, $100+/month. $15k - 10kW ($10k with credits) system pays off in 100 months or less (8.3 yrs).

That's the math I am penciling out for my own home renovation and install later this year.