Yeah thing is if I did disconnect hydro I'd probably keep gas, could have a gas generator for when I need to top up the batteries, but idealy I'd want to try to size the system in such a way that it's barely needed - which may be hard due to lack of sun light hours for most of the year. That's when the idea of wind turbine came to mind, as that can work any time of the day, so even if it's not working all day, it can still put power into the system at night. I may have to experiment with a small one sitting on the ground just to get a feel for it. Basically if that does somewhat half decent I know that a big one higher up will do better.
But my main issue is lack of property, so reality is I don't think I can really go full off grid. I think my first step needs to be to do a solar setup, then run some stuff off it, and see how it goes from there. It's not a question of if it would pay for itself but a question of when (10,20, 50 years?) as the rates go up multiple times a year so the cost is only going to get more and more expensive over time, while the solar will be a one time cost that may require one time maintenance costs every so often. By the time I get close to retirement I will probably be paying like $500/mo at the rate the utilities keep going up. But at that point I may just have to move since taxes will be absurd too.