Generally anything that uses a motor, fan, water pump etc that has moving parts and is usually powered by electricity is considered active. There is nothing wrong with active and hybrid systems. I just like to be clear what I am talking about because so many people believe that everything solar is very expensive. This belief is based on poor information about PV and solar hot water systems. Many don’t even recognize that passive solar is cheap and very different. That said even the PV misconception is based on prices from 8 to 30 years ago. PV is very cheap now relative to even coal. Still a big high use house system could cost $15K. Passive is so much cheaper.
Ya. You have to do a complete ROI including maintenance.
One thing that makes photo cells less compelling is that you have to up convert the power to AC to make it useful. Too bad that our houses are not wired for DC power AND the appliances, etc. that we use aren’t wired for DC. A lot of our stuff down converts the AC to DC to make it useful. Anything that uses an AC motor wouldn’t work. But maybe a resistive appliance like a stove might work. Who knows.
Long distance distribution was always the issue for DC and why AC won out (Tesla’s AC versus Edison’s DC).