How Palmetto’s Performance Modeling Ensures Customers Are Prepared for the Impacts of Snow

It’s a persistent bit of misinformation: that solar panels are a bad fit in places with snow.

While it might make more intuitive sense that solar panels are a great fit for the rooftops and parking lots of Arizona, they’re widely adopted and valuable additions to homes and the grid in places more renowned for their winters than summers. For instance, Maine now has more distributed solar per capita than any other state.

Snow — like anything that blocks the sun from reaching solar panels — does have an impact on solar production, but it might be less than you think. Palmetto’s data tracking the effect of weather on solar production shows this to be the case, while also protecting customers from unnecessary service calls.

Considering snow in performance modeling

Performance modeling is the data that underpins important parts of a customer’s experience with Palmetto.

It’s a key factor in assessing performance guarantees that protect homeowners against underperforming systems. Understanding how weather impacts performance is easier when clouds are the only interfering factors. But when those clouds leave snow behind, solar production can be disrupted for a while even after the clouds have moved on. Adjusting for snow depth in the model provides greater accuracy.

Understanding when a dip in performance is a result of snow or a mechanical issue can improve maintenance response times. Automatically weeding out snow-related dips — which resolve as soon as the snow melts — helps Palmetto focus on correcting the issues that need human intervention. Quick diagnosis and resolution of those issues means less downtime and more electricity for customers.

What the data on snow shows

Taking a look at the real-world data on snow shows that disruption may not be as big of a challenge as it seems at first glance. All solar panel systems are designed with expected snow loss in mind, so homeowners have clear production expectations from the beginning.

Palmetto’s data on snow loss shows the loss is relatively minor.*

Only in states famous for their heavy lake effect snow — Michigan and Ohio — did solar panels lose more than 3% of potential annual production to snowfall in the winter of 2025-2026. All other states, including some with potentially harsh winters like Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey, saw less than 2% loss. In Colorado, which saw its lowest snow pack on record this past winter, Palmetto solar systems lost an average of only 0.22% of their potential production during that time period, well below what would be expected for that period.

If you’re curious whether solar can lower your bills, get a free quote today, or download the Palmetto app to get recommendations specific for your home.

*Based on average Palmetto system performance

Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only. Palmetto does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors.