We are asking because 20 acres I want to buy is going to cost a pile to run power company power to it, if I can spend $15,000 and have basically no electric bill for 10 years I will be very far ahead.
It's true, we don't have the sunshine of so cal or phoenix but we can run wood heat, propane heat, LED light blobs and such and run a pretty minimal electric bill., probably gonna do all that anyhow so not like they are extra expenses. The land is mostly sunny, the mountains don't effect sunshine much where it is located. Also we already don't run AC in the summer so that's not even a big deal.
If you are building the house then you can do a lot of tricks to save energy. Extra thick walls, extra insulation, bury the back side of the house into a hill, arrange the house so you get maximum solar heat during the day, etc.
