The dominating thought around Canadian winters and solar panels is that they are practically useless for the winter months. This could not be further from the truth! Snow will reduce your solar energy output but not by much which means you annual losses are not that great.
The day-to-day production of your solar panels is not as important as your total annual production. One of the most important things to know is that about 75% of your yearly solar power is generated in the summer, spring, and fall. With the net-metering programs available through all of Canada there is no need to worry about the 25% you need to generate in the winter.
Net metering: Your electricity production and consumption are metered by your utility company. When you generate more electricity than you need, you feed it back to the grid and get a generation credit towards your future electricity use. When you don’t generate enough to meet your needs, you buy it from the utility company. If you have excess electricity generation by a certain date, you will receive an excess payment from the utility company at market price.
Many people may think it is best to clear the snow off their panels during the winter but this is not necessary, we even discourage it! A research team in Edmonton studied the effects of snow on solar panels for a period of five years where they installed twelve solar panels at six different angles. Over the five-year period they continuously cleaned half of the array while leaving the other half covered in snow. After compiling all the data, the researchers concluded that the uncleaned solar panels’ biggest loss only accounted for about 3% annually!
Light snowfall will slide right off the slick surface of the solar panel when they are installed on a typical pitched roof. It is also important to keep in mind that the solar panels warm up slightly, causing the snow to melt. This process helps clean your solar panels from any dust or debris that was collected on it over the summer.
