What I've learned from my solar panels

The previous owners of our house had 21 solar panels installed back in 2012 (remember that year). Since we bought it in 2016, I've been curious about trends in our usage. Well, after two full years, here's that I've learned:

1. Day-to-day production is highly variable because of clouds. Even though May 26th is a "zero shadow" day (because Hawaii likes at 21°18'16" N latitude) it didn't produce significantly more electricity.
   
2. Month-to-month is regular. Controlling for the cloud cover, this May's production is about comparable to that of last year.
   
3. Over the course of a year, production varies significantly, despite the low latitude. May produced about 90% more than December 2017. (It may look similar, but the scale is very different)
   Perhaps a better way to look at it is over the course of 2017.
   
4. We use about 95% of what we produce, though we benefit from net metering. Net metering means that -- to the home owner -- the value of a kilowatt-hour contributed is equal to the value of a kilowatt-hour consumed. So if we contribute a kwh to the grid during the day and then consume it at night, we break even. This was possible back in 2012, but not for new solar customers in Hawaii due to the "duck curve problem.".
   
5. For solar power installations to continue, power companies must figure out how to deal with the duck curve. Either we somehow develop massive capacitors to store daytime-generated power, we allow for by-hour variable pricing for electricity, or we find a way to consume more during the day.

I don't know if anyone's working on a docking station for self-driving electric cars, but that might be a good way to soak up the excess daytime solar-generated power.