We had a sunny week, but hardly made energy. Why? There was snow on the panels. Lucky for us, they are close to the ground and CAN be cleared. We got a special foam "broom" for delicate surfaces (recommended for solar panels). I finally got around to clear the panels on Thursday noon. The result was amazing: Even though there was still a bit of sow/ice left, the panels cleared within a few minutes and were back from hibernation.
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| Before |
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| Immediately after snow removal |
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| A few minutes later |
We made > 86 kWh today (Friday), which amounts to roughly $16 in electricity difference compared to the days before. So unless your panels are on your roof, get out there and clean them on those sunny winter days! Just make sure to use the right equipment that does not scratch the surface.
The graph below from our monitoring system shows the energy production almost halfway through my cleaning exercise: Most panels are still dark, i.e. do not produce energy. On the bottom, you can notice the flat curve (basically zero energy) for the days before.
