Common solar panels are 20% efficient because we have tuned the bandgap to about 1.1-1.4 eV, which is the right spot to catch as much energy from solar radiation as possible for a single-junction cell. If you exclude visible light, you are left with the sides of this, which are awful.
"Doesn't convert or even block the peak of the spectrum" is a massive handicap for a solar panel. The panels designed without that restriction will always be vastly cheaper per watt.

Why would you use solar panels at high latitude? That's another intentional handicap. Put them where the sun actually shines, maybe?

The panels themselves might last for a long time, although we don't exactly have the manufacturing data to back that up. But even if they do, there's casing and transformers and grid connections and mechanical mounts, all of which break and need maintenance. If you are on a roof, that's fine. If you are on the side of a skyscraper, it's more expensive.

There are plenty of southern population centers to supply with cheap, dumb, efficient, boring solar panels. Let's do that

Putting them on the wall! You no longer need to purposely cripple your panel by making it transparent to 70% of the energy in solar spectrum!

You know what's even better than putting solar panels on the wall? Putting them on the roof! That way you can lay them flat to catch the sun better.

You know what's even better than putting them on the roof? Putting them on the ground! That way you can put them on sun-tracking mounts, and easily walk around and make repairs/replacements as needed.

You know what's even better than putting them on the ground? Putting them on the ground in the desert! That way you don't need to pay for expensive city real-estate.

But that's what all the BIG BORING companies keep trying. Let's do the window thing! That sounds fun!

This is not a feature, but a request for all potential story submitters:
I like to stumble upon interesting, up-and-coming software projects. When nim-lang or Manjaro Linux go 1.0, I'll post a blurb here because I think those are awesome projects that deserve attention (and users and contributions). Please post blurbs to your favorite projects when they hit big milestones!
(but no Firefox or Linux Kernel point releases, please)