Locally Michigan State is covering all their parking lots with solar panels. The added advantage is that since you're car is parked under them you don't have to clear the snow off.
But what I haven't figured out is if they have to broom them off after a snow or just wait until the sun melts it. By the time I am around in the afternoon time they are always cleared.
For panels in northern climates, if the tilt is fixed or just seasonally adjusted (i.e., not tracking the sun), we often will bias towards a bit more vertical tilt than mathematically optimal to encourage snow shedding.
Panels have a low albedo - they absorb a lot of energy. About 25% of that is turned into electricity, the rest heats the panel. So as soon as a corner is exposed to the sun, it tends to melt off the rest of the snow comparatively quickly.
No idea if anyone actually does this. In theory, you could forward-bias the panels with an external power supply. That should generate infrared light at the band gap, which should melt the snow.
It might be enough to just form a thin layer of water, so the whole mass of snow slides off.
https://ipf.msu.edu/about/news/solar-carport-initiative-earn...
But what I haven't figured out is if they have to broom them off after a snow or just wait until the sun melts it. By the time I am around in the afternoon time they are always cleared.