I've always found it weird that we are burning fossil fuels, in order to generate energy, which will in turn be used to remove excess energy.

Running air conditioners from them seems like a better proposition. I didn't even know about the passive cooling provided by the panels themselves.

For places where panels are expensive, what about a radiator system? Circulate a coolant, remove heat from the roof of the house, release somewhere else. Might be cheaper than removing heat from the air inside the house.