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> Panels commonly run at 12V (or some low multiple thereof),

That is absolutely not true. Generally speaking nontrivial sized photovoltaic systems are designed with panels in series such that the voltage stays just barely within the 600v rating on the wire.

For example, grid tie inverter, MPPT rated 195-550v:

http://pdf.wholesalesolar.com/inverter%20pdf%20folder/Schnei...

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You're right, panels are generally ganged together in battery to avoid the 'thick copper cable' problem.

However, the individual panel assemblies do run at lower voltages (individual cells run at the band gap of the semiconductor, 1 or 2 V).

It should be noted that placing the panels in series has a significant effect on panel performance when some of the panels are shaded (The entire string outputs at the rate of the shaded panel), so it would be much better to place panels in parallel when possible.

I still think that the best alternative for putting the pannels in parallel is by using DC/DC converter on then, and never thinking about 60Hz AC.

Why not just shortcut the shaded panels dynamically, reducing the overall resistance?

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