Winter Weather and Solar Panels
Are you digging out today on the East Coast or are you basking in the sun in Arizona? If you are getting a sun tan on the West Coast, then this blog post is not for you. If you are looking at a roof and your home solar panels under a foot of snow, then you may want to read further. Let’s get to the basics. If your home solar panels are under snow, they are not producing electricity. You have some choices to get those modules back up and generating solar power.
If you live at northern latitude, then the solar modules on your home were probably installed at an angle. Take the path of least resistance and when the sun comes out and starts beating down on your roof, the snow will simply slip away from the solar panels.
If you live in Georgia, your panels are probably not at much of an angle. If you live in the south, or if you simply don’t want to wait until the snow slips away from your panels, we have some ideas. Your panels are not at any risk of damage, but the the snow will lower your short-term production. 
Don’t use a shovel. Read your warranty! The worst thing that can happen for any solar installation is for the panels to get damaged from a shovel. Warranties generally do not cover damage from homeowners. Snow on roofs generally melts relatively quickly. If you really need to clean off your panels, use a broom and be very careful–really careful. Once the sun is out from the clouds, the snow on them should melt relatively quickly. In other words, the best thing to do is wait it out; going up on an icy and/or snowy roof is very dangerous, and you risk not only hurting yourself but also your solar panels.
Remember that since it’s the winter, you are going to get less sun exposure whether or not there’s snow due to the shorter days. Luckily, grid tied systems will just draw power from the grid when the solar panels aren’t producing. Off grid installations might be in some trouble if it snows over a prolonged period, and you should make sure your batteries have excess capacity if you are planning on installing in snow-prone areas.
Reflection from the snow may help production. The silver lining to snow is that once the snow on your panels melts off or is cleared off, the snow on the ground will actually reflect light out, and that means more production from your panels! Research has shown that snow has a very small overall impact on your installation’s seasonal power yield, because the increased production thanks to solar beams bouncing off snow and onto your panels almost completely neutralizes the downtime as the snow on your panels melts.
Solar aside, remember to be safe and bundle up!