Folks aren't home during peak sunshine. They're home in the evening. They may turn on the AC then to cool off the house from a day of heat accumulation. Just when the solar has tapered off.

I'm up in the north central US. People around here have started putting solar in an east-west orientation rather than due south.

They are trading peak power generation for peak usefulness.

I am fortunate enought to have a south west facing roof, not fortunate enough to have sunshine. Obviously the peak solution is just to to track the sun across the sky all day - smartflower.com

> Folks aren't home during peak sunshine.

Work-from-home is certainly changing that. Not to mention stay-at-home parents, etc.

This is addressed in the "Common misconception" of the "California Duck Curve" article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve

> California's annual demand peaks usually occur around 3 pm to 5 pm, when solar power output is still substantial. The reason that California's annual peak tends to be earlier than the daily peak is that California's annual peak usually occurs on hot days with large air conditioning loads, which tend to run more during midday.

TLDR: The overall peak is between 3 and 5PM.

Which isn't peak sunshine. That's at around noon?

At 2PM your solar panels are producing about half of what they could.

True, but that's a bit like turning the problem on its head, the important part is that solar panels do help during California's peak, which wouldn't be true in most other places because the peak would be happening much after 5PM.

...and the solar panels would help better if placed optimally - in the open with no residential shade trees or neighboring houses; grouped for efficient maintenance and electrical conversion; on the ground where they could be adjusted as needed for time of year.

Residential roofs are about the worst place to put a solar panel imaginable.

Why not let the AC run during the day so that it remains cool on free electricity, and you don’t need AC at night.. No?