Unless they are snow-covered and give 0% efficiency.
Fair enough. I’m in Wisconsin, so I understand completely. Snow messes things up. 
I used to work at a company that used 1.8m KU-band satellite dishes to deliver Internet to ISPs that were far enough off the grid to be well-served by phone company T1 services, and we had at least one client in Alaska. They would literally wake up in the morning after a snowfall, go outside, and use a broom to sweep off the dish so they’d have Internet.
I’m imagining that most people in climates where $haveSnowInWinter=true would prefer to not have an added “shovel the roof” task. I’m wondering if there are any good ways to deal with that particular issue?
@webwalrus yes the bulk of Biden’s energy bill from a solar perspective is investing in companies with Perovskite products in the pipleline. The issue with Perovskite is that a quality PV panel will still generate 80 % more of its rated output 25+ years later. Perovskite degrades after 10 years or at least the ones tested in the lab are projected to. They need to increase longevity.
That being said though there is consideral intrerest in stacked panels with a Perovskite and PV layer. This would allow panels with greater than 30% efficiency compared to the top panels of today at around 22 %.
Snow…we just had snow here in Arkansas and predicatbly it blocked energy. If there was only a way to heat the panels just enough to cause the snow to slide off.
As I understand it, (some?) heat pumps periodically try to de-ice themselves. But that probably means that they are not heating the inside of your house during that time or else using electricity to power the de-icer. BTW, it was -13 degrees Fahrenheit here this morning. Kinda tough to melt ice and snow off the outside of an outdoor appliance at that temperature. 
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I’ve been looking the the Ford F150 electric and one reason is the truck to house capability. https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/2022/#2022-f150-lightning-homepage-image--6c6f2f74b3af2435765c5aa30176b01e-ai
I’m a bit jealous of Ford’s early commitment to truck to house. We have a Rivian R1T coming this spring. Rivian is planning to provide that capability at some point but it wasn’t a launch feature.
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Reuters published a report last year that said it is estimated the US electric grid would have to double capacity by 2050 to handle the load if 66% of cars were EV.
OTOH the auto industry expects private ownership of cars to drop significantly when autonomous vehicles become widely available.
Either way, if I’m on the road in 2050 everyone better hope I’m not driving the car 
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Yeah I’m in Florida. The utility companies have lobbyists who are doing their best to make sure that solar doesn’t become a viable option for most people here. And putting tariffs on foreign made solar panels doesn’t help much either.
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Here in Florida hurricane season can put us without electricity for weeks. I have UPS devices on my computers and the Internet routers. Since I can’t work without Internet, I added a backup Internet service (whole house LTE router from Verizon) to my DSL. It works great, has enough juice for video conferencing. A couple years ago I bit the bullet and sprang for a 12kw propane whole house generator. It costs a fortune to run, but it’s worth it to avoid the misery of lengthy power outages.
I’ve never lost power for more than a day. People that have lost power for days often tell me it’s more likely you’re going to lose power during awful weather than you are in the nice days of Spring/Summer. So generally losing power for extended times is pure misery.
I’d spring for a Generator as well. I think we’re still 5-10 years away from batteries being a easier cost/performance beneift.
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