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>Tall skyscrapers can hold significantly more people on a small footprint, so why not apply that thinking to solar panels as well?

This is not a good analogy and seems to misunderstand the purpose of the arrangement.

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More kwh on a small footprint?

So, people take up volume, which is a cubic function, whereas solar panels take up surface area, which is a square function. But on top of that, though they might kvetch, people can be in a shadow and still be reasonably in a dwelling. If you started making a field of solar towers, they'd start casting shade on each other and reduce the efficiency. Which isn't to say that there would be zero marginal additional kwh/sqft, but that you'd get dramatically diminishing returns the less you spaced out the towers, which I think happens slower for people.

+1 for kvetch

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