Solar panels are inexpensive, reliable, require little maintenance, and are a small cost as part of building codes compliance. It's sensible to require them as part of building codes for new construction.
I was reading about micro-inverters, which are becoming a more popular option over string-inverters for grid-tied solar. The idea with microinverters, is rather then have a big inverter, you have many small ones, which use smaller film capacitors which are less likely to fail. You also get the advantage of having MPPT tracking on each panel seperately. But what if you just want DC power out of each panel, but don't want to the disadvantage of connecting a large number of panels in series and hooking it up to a centralized solar controller? You could use a power optimizer, which adjusts the resistance of the power floating out panel to get the maximum output from each individual panel. I would imagine you would also use a solar controller to avoid overcharging your batteries, and floating them when the proper time comes. Interesting stuff.
Always amazes me that with all the flat roofs on state buildings downtown that very few have solar panels. It really shows what state government actually thinks about renewable energy.
"New research measures the value of clean air."
"During the solar eclipse that passed across the continental United States on August 21, 2017, solar output on the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) electric system dropped while the sun was partially obscured. Much of the decrease in solar output was made up by increased electricity imports and increased generation from thermal units, most of which is fueled by natural gas."
"Although California was not in the path of totality during the eclipse, meaning the sun was not completely obscured, California contains 43% of the national total for utility-scale solar and 40% of small-scale solar, (as of May 2017). Much of the state’s solar capacity is located in areas where sunlight was obscured by as much as 60%–70% during the eclipse."
"Based on an average of the previous five weekdays, CAISO’s solar power output typically increases to about 9.1 gigawatts (GW) between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, or to roughly 31% of total load. On August 21, as the moon partially obscured sunlight, CAISO’s solar power output fell to a low of 3.6 GW for that hour, about 60% lower than normal."