My dad is retiring in a few years, and he is looking into this. I know that this is what one of my teachers did when he retired, but I don’t really want to ask him how it’s been goin 
So, what are the pros and cons of buying solar power for a house?
P.S. I live in Canada and I live on the bay, so it is only sunny like 50-60% of the time.
Solar heating may be an excellent option for him. Rather than converting the sun’s energy to electricity at about 20% efficiency, you could convert it directly to heat at about 85% efficiency. You can use solar water heating to heat your water instead of a traditional power consuming water heater, and solar air heaters to heat the air in the house, supplementing your existing heater.
The Canadian government has some grants available to help pay for it from their Grants under their ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program. http://oee.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/residential/personal/retrofit-homes/questions-answers.cfm?attr=0#intro1
You can also look into a grid tied solar electric system that has solar panels and an inverter, but no batteries. You just generate some of your power during the day, and buy the rest from the electric company. That is much more affordable and less complicated than a battery based system.
You can read about a lot of the options at the AltE Store at http://www.altestore.com/store/.