[rhacker]

What happens when you add that much weight to a flat roof and then the snow comes? I'm guessing the snow load is just enough in most cases.

[PTOB]

This is the right question. Warehouse roofs are designed to counter snow load and wind uplift at "x" mph. Once those forces are exceeded, you can expect damage.

[iancmceachern]

This is a solved problem. Flat roofs exist in places like Colorado and New York, they are just designed to the appropriate snow load and then move on

[davnicwil]

this might be a bit silly but... maybe not... could you siphon off a little bit of power from the panels to heat an array of heating wires just enough to melt snow on impact and then it'd drip off like rain?

[_Microft]

Not at all. Afaik you won‘t even need wires for that. You can occasionally feed energy into the panels which produces a bit of heat there. It wouldn’t even have to melt (a lot) of snow - just enough that the bulk of it slides off.

[jupp0r]

Solar panels are pretty light weight compared to snow loads.

[voisin]

The parent comment is that the roof is designed for the structural load of the snow load and not much else. Solar panels need ballast, racking, thick teck cable, etc and can easily overload the structural design. I’ve just gone through this on a warehouse I own. Cheaper to build over the parking lot than add structural reinforcements for every column.