Solar panels in the winter - look out

I have 400 watts feeding my shed/reloading/ham shack.

We've had over a foot of snow during the last few days. The first storm was heavy and wet, and then it got cold and now the snow is light and fluffy. Snowing again today.

My solar panels are accessible because I wanted to be able to broom the snow off them. The first 6 inches of snow froze into ice, and the second and third snow stacked up to about a foot deep. The panels are at an angle of about 30 degrees but none of it slid off by itself.

I was able to get most of the snow off using a plastic blade (no metal edge) snow shovel, but there is still a thin layer of ice on the panels.

If they had been on my roof I would be out of luck. In the current conditions, light snow, they are making 7 watts with the snow removed.

The weather guessers say it won't get above freezing for the next week or so, but if the sun comes out it will probably melt the ice.

Lesson learned: Get the snow off them ASAP. If they are on your roof, good luck.

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One thing I'm going to try is some silicone spray lubricant on them to keep the ice from sticking. It worked really well to spray my snow blower to keep the snow from sticking to the chute.

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Solar panels in the winter - look out