However, as for it making more sense to install residential PV, rather than utility scale PV, due to “economies of scale” it is much faster and therefore cheaper (less than ½ the cost) to install Utility-scale PV.
https://www.nrel.gov/solar/market-research-analysis/solar-installed-system-cost.html
Once they are installed, panels on a farm can be easily maintained by a dedicated staff, rather than having more workers traveling from home to home.
If the goal is to bring as much solar on-line as possible as fast as possible, from a system view, it makes more sense to install utility scale PV.
There is a “hybrid" situation, where extremely large roofs (factory complexes, shopping centers, municipal buildings…) may have solar farms constructed on them. There, you have similar "economies of scale" with the reuse of space that you’re looking for.
Similarly, “farms” can be constructed over parking lots, highways, reservoirs, canals etc. although not as easily/cheaply as in “ground mount” farms.
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