When my wife and I bought our house two and half years ago, one of the features that appealed to us was a tree that stood grandly in the yard, its branches reaching well over the house. The problem, we soon realized, is it stood too grandly and too close, pressuring the foundation and encouraging moss on the roof.

We cut it down a little over a year ago and since then I’ve noticed that regardless of the season, the bulk of the sun’s transit across the sky each day baths light upon the roof once shaded by the tree. One day, I figure, I’ll be a good candidate for solar.

Are those days here now? Earlier this month, Lowe’s Home Improvement began selling do-it-yourself solar panels kits at 21 stores in California, with plans to roll the products out nationwide next year. The second I heard of them, I considered the possibility of shifting solar from some far-off daydream to a springtime project.

The rooftop panels cost $893 a piece and are provided by California-based Akeena Solar (Lowe’s also sells a $99 panel for recharging car and boat batteries). What’s appealing about the rooftop panels is that they are modular, so once you have one installed, you can connect additional panels whenever you want. They include built-in inverters, thereby avoiding the expense of costlier inverters that are often installed separately.

The downside is that you will no doubt want to add more panels:  One individual panel generates 175 watts of electricity, enough to power a flat screen television. The average U.S. household uses 936 kWh a month.

“People might want to put up one, see if it works. Then with their next paycheck, they may buy four more,” Barry Cinnamon, CEO of Akeena told the Associated Press.

No doubt it will appeal to some DIYers like me, but Cinnamon’s comments point out the fact that solar still has a price problem: To afford to buy those additional four panels with a bi-weekly paycheck, consumers need to earn nearly double the annual household income in the U.S.

Still, news of the retail sales sent Akeena (AKNS) rallying up 57% in one day, from 99-cents to 1.55 (profit-takers have since clipped off about half of the gains). It’s not the sales of solar panels from those 21 stores that excites investors, but the potential for sales at Lowe’s 1,700 locations in the U.S. and Canada.

As editor of Cabot Green Investor, which focuses on alternative energy, energy efficiency and Green lifestyle stocks, I know solar stocks can be very volatile. At under 2, Akeena should only be bought with true risk capital.

I do have one interesting alternative to investigate for those eager to buy into solar, however: Suntech Power (STP). Suntech is a Chinese company that actually manufactures the “Andalay” solar modules that Akeena is selling through Lowe’s. Suntech shares barely budged from 16 on the Lowe’s news, but look like they have finally achieved the technical conditions to turn higher after suffering a two-year-long hangover from a fantastic 2007 performance.