By ignoring the second half of their comment you've missed the subtly that "panel" is an overly broad term and there are several different kinds of panels that collect energy from the sun for human use, among them photovoltaics, panels for heating residential water (often seen as black roof panels with pipes), and complex mirror (aka reflective panels) arrangements for melting salts. All of them use panels in some form.

My cousin (not Vinny) has solar panels to heat his water to like 50 C all year long.

And also photovoltaics for electricity.

There are also combo units that's solar and PV in one, supposedly the water cooling down the PV panels should help keep it at optimal temperatures