AZ, depending on the design of the motor, startup current can be as high as 10 times the rated current. A lot of it depends on the mass attached to the motor. For example, a compressor with a heavy startup, from the flywheel, piston(s), etc, plus the compressive load as the pistons travel. So you could be looking at a draw of up to 100 amps on a "rated" 10-amp draw tool. Now, this is a very short period, but if your equipment isn't rated for that 100 amp surge, you could really fry some stuff.
Now, the full story is that the breakers in your panel are rated for say, 15 or 20 amps. However, that's not an instant trip rating, rather a continuous draw rating (i.e., they're designed to trip after a fixed amount of time at their rated current). For an "instant" trip, you need about 10 times the rated current. In other words, a 15 amp breaker isn't gonna trip during a short load at 16 amps. Rather, it's gonna instantly trip at about 130-150 amps. But if you run it at 16 amps for 5-10 minutes, it'll trip. However, I don't know how well that would bode for your proposed solar system.