DIY move panels from roof to ground?

We're buying a house that has a 4.2kW grid tie system installed on the roof 2 owners ago. The system is owned and not leased (I checked) and seems to be working, but I can't tell how well. It's a 4BR house and the current owner says she pays ~$100/month for electricity--AC, water heater, and lights. We owned a similar sized house in the area and paid ~$200/month for AC and lights so these panels seem good enough right now. The home inspector indicated the roof does look old and recommended replacing it soon or within a couple years. The house was built in 1986.

The system was put on by Standard Solar in 2009 and when I called them (now Standard Energy Solutions--SES), the rep indicated that according to his records for this install, the roof was in good condition at the time. The roof isn't leaking and there aren't any indicators that it's going to outright fail.

So none of this really worries me except that the quote I got for removal and replacement of the system is $4400--$2200 to take off and $2200 to put back on. The replacement includes new mounting hardware. It's 24 175W panels and SES charges ~$183/panel for removal/install. The rep also added that these panels are no longer manufactured but they do have some in-stock for $100/each. I'm working on getting more details about this system.

It's not urgent for me to replace this roof, but I would like to do it in the next couple of years. I would like to keep the panels but that price to take them down seems really high to me. This house sits on over an acre and there is a lot of unshaded area so it makes more sense to me to re-install these on the ground than to punch holes into a new roof. I found the old permit on the county website to install this system so I'd imagine I'd need an electrical permit to take this system down and then to re-install it.

Can you point me to resources for uninstalling panels myself? I'm not a electrical newb as I have installed new circuits to a panel, etc, but I'm not above hiring an electrician either and doing as much of the work myself to offset the cost. How can I evaluate if the panels are still good? The inverter is by "Sunny Boy SMA Technologie AG". The disconnect has the following labeled on it "Operating Current: 14.76A; Operating Voltage: 281.60V; Max System Voltage: 417.25V; Short-Circuit Current: 19.50A" They are 11 years old now, but even if they're at 80%, it still seems worth it to use them if they're still working. I have been researching ground setups and it seems straight forward enough.

 

thanks in advance for any help