> but because that’s better than dumping the energy through the panels themselves via excess heating. That's not how solar panels turn themselves off, however.

> but because that’s better than dumping the energy through the panels themselves via excess heating. That's not how solar panels turn themselves off, however. To turn a solar panel off, you just disconnect it. It will produce a voltage (which is why handling an uncovered solar panel can be a shock hazard), but no current. It's not dumping the power, it's actually producing no power in the first place (voltage times current is zero when the current is zero).