Yeah, its been working out well. The reason Boulder is doing this is that we have a coal plant out east. :/
It's more of supplemental energy thing, to help out in the long run. Boulder and generally most of Colorado is sunny most of the times.
http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/files/PDS/codes/solrshad.pdf
You can see in the first paragraph that Boulder is pretty firm on giving the solar panels access to sun.
Ah, the "permitting access to the sun" rule probably wouldn't work here. In the South, people want cooling shade, grand old oaks, and all that. But there are areas that could still use the panels. The beach areas, and new subdivisions that are created from old farm fields don't have the shade problem.
We have a two-story house, so if we put panels up they should be able to gather enough hours of sun. Also, most of our trees are deciduous, so we could still get sun during the shorter winter days. Still, there is a lot of shade from our 40+ feet tall trees.
Our area has made
some progress. Until our HOA recently updated and revised our covenants, solar panels weren't even allowed on roofs (esthetics, you know).
We have missionary friends who live in Micronesia. Their electricity rates are horrendous. We asked them if they could use solar panels. They said that because of all the overhanging coconut trees it wasn't feasible.
I hope someone can invent indestructible panels someday. Even I worry about the constant bombardment of acorns, pine cones and tree limbs on our roof.
for the link. I might be able to use some of that information.