Snow and a lack of wind are not stopping solar and wind energy production in Germany

A viral post from more than a year ago has been recirculating, claiming that German renewable energy isn’t working properly due to winter weather. 

"In Germany, millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and 30,000 wind turbines are sitting idle because there’s no wind," said a meme shared Sept. 25 on Instagram. It includes a photo of snow-blanketed solar panels. 

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The claim, however, has no basis in fact. German solar panels and wind turbines were functioning normally in 2021, this claim previously circulated. And experts say winter weather hasn’t generally posed a significant threat to renewable energy. 

The meme in the post cites the Australian news site SkyNews. A February 2021 segment from the SkyNews show "Outsiders," shows Australian conservative news commentator Rowan Dean stating that "millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and 30,000 wind turbines are sitting idle because there’s no wind."

Dean did not elaborate about the source of his claim and he didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s request for more information.

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We found the photo on the website of British stock photo agency Alamy with a caption that reads, "Solar panels are covered with snow at the solar park in Meuro, Germany, 21 February 2013. Despite covered by snow the modules produce 5 megawatts of power." According to a website that tracks energy production data, German solar and wind production experienced no significant or sudden drops during February 2021. 

Experts told PolitiFact that cold weather and lack of wind can affect energy production, but the implication of a mass failure of these energy sources is wrong. "The claim that millions of PV (photovoltaic) modules don't provide electricity in winter is of course nonsense," Karsten Schafer, a spokesman for the German Solar Industry Association, told Agence France-Presse in 2021 for a fact-check about a similar meme. 

Snow buildup doesn’t cause significant issues in Germany’s ability to produce solar power, according to Ute Stewart, press and communication officer for Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue. In an email to PolitiFact, Stewart wrote that there is almost never a day when intense snowfall affects the whole country.  

"If you look at the yearly yield," Stewart wrote, "the loss (of solar power) is insignificant at best, under 1%." At higher altitudes, the loss of solar power because of snowfall can be up to 6%, he wrote, but there aren’t many solar panels at higher altitudes. Some of the snowiest countries in the world use solar power. 

An Instagram post says, "In Germany, millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and 30,000 wind turbines are sitting idle because there’s no wind." 

There is no data or evidence to support this claim. German solar and wind production energy production experienced no sudden drops the first time this rumor started in February 2021, nor recently. 

We rate this claim False.