Putting lipstick on a pig does not change the nature of the pig...

One day soon it will make great sense economic and otherwise for most to get off the grid. As long as that is the goal I am all for it. If on the other hand all that is done is for mega-corporations to swallow up large tracts of land and bind us to them while they transfer the power over an inefficient unreliable power grid just generated by other means then not so much...

What innovative thinking!
I am sure that as time goes on, solar power will improve greatly. But then, who knows what negative results the insane lefties will make up in order to impede the use of solar power, as they have done with nuclear power.

hoas in California can't stop solar

agreed

Ah yes, the joys of "association living", etc. I would not live in such a place. Of course, many municipalities create similar headaches.

Your best bet in general is to live outside the city limits of any incorporated town if you want to live free.

Unfortunately the consequences include neighborhood design review committees empowered by contract that prevent use of such "ugly" devices. Eventually such impediments can change, but often the technology has been buried and economic benefits wasted for decades.
So the US has millions of homes wasting energy, lacking only the capital and will to upgrade them and the government wastes hundreds of billions "securing" oil supplies in foreign lands.

People are free to not know better. They are also free to deal with the consequences.

And it will be a cold day in hell before most women will want them to mess up the lovely roofs of their McMansions.

I would assume that a free market will create competition for efficiency in due course. The earliest solar cells were less than 2% efficient. I'm not sure what is possible now, but have seen efficiencies above 30% claimed.

One of the unfortunate trends in present-day marketing of solar panels is that many manufacturers are working on appearance rather than efficiency. "Solar shingles" are a fine example. Easy to install, yes. They look like more or less like ordinary roofing for those who find solar panels "ugly", yes. They are cheap to manufacture....yes. But their efficiency and projected lifespan are less than half of that produced by higher quality cells.

Mind, putting an otherwise ordinary roof to some use is a gain. But so much more is possible....

Quite right--use a standard "air panel" for heat, but place solar cells at the back instead of the standard black-painted metal. Two uses in one space. In effect, this would more than double the overall "efficiency", since heat would be recovered which is now merely vented to the air.

I have seen air collectors which incorporate small photovoltaic panels to run their circulating fans. Clearly the cells can handle the temperature. It is merely a matter of adapting existing designs.

Yeah no kidding, I was thinking the same thing.

Layer 1: IR entrapment layer. Heats up to XX degrees C over ambient temperature. Passively generates energy with a thermoelectric system. Concentrates the heat with heat pipes.

Layer 2: Standard high-efficiency solar cell.

Cool. Now if only they can start to get the efficiency up. 30% means that it still takes an acre of panels to provide enough for a single home...

Seems like the extra heat could be put to use somehow.

One of the reason for solar cells' inefficiency is poor heat transfer. This solves that problem pretty well.

I saw this in a trade magazine just a few days ago. Yes, this is pretty interesting.