> The whole point of mounting solar panels should be to maximize area that is facing the sun. This is still conventional wisdom, yes. It assumes that you need

> The whole point of mounting solar panels should be to maximize area that is facing the sun. This is still conventional wisdom, yes. It assumes that you need to maximise utilisation of solar panels, and act as if they are rare and expensive. But they are now neither rare nor expensive any more. Also, as the other comment pointed out, if you "maximize area that is facing the sun", you get most generation at mid-day. Adding in some generation that is most active in early and late day balances that out, as most power is used then. And you can just throw more panels at the problem. It's not a constraint any more.