Notes from the roof.
Field notes, case studies, and honest answers from Marquis Mason, a local Dane County owner-operator who cleans solar panels across Southern Wisconsin.
What I write about
Everything I post here comes directly from the roof — real jobs, real production numbers, and the questions Dane County homeowners and Southern Wisconsin facility managers actually email me. I don't publish filler and I don't publish affiliate roundups. If a topic made it onto this page, it's because a customer asked, or because a seasonal pattern (pollen, road salt, farm dust, winter storm residue) changed how a specific array is producing.
Topics I cover regularly
- Soiling-loss math for Wisconsin: what rain actually lifts off the glass vs. what bakes on, with NREL field data for Great Lakes climates.
- Panel manufacturer cleaning requirements:what Tesla, SunPower, LG, LONGi, JinkoSolar, Panasonic, REC, Q CELLS, and Canadian Solar publish in their O&M manuals — and which DIY shortcuts void the warranty.
- Commercial soiling case studies: the Wisconsin State Capitol rooftop array, Dane County ag sites, and multi-site portfolios across the 15-county footprint.
- Seasonal timing: when to clean after the spring pollen bloom, after harvest dust, and before the shorter daylight hours of fall.
- Honest trade-offs: when cleaning won't help, how to spot panels that are actually failing (EVA yellowing, cell delamination) vs. just dirty, and when the right answer is a warranty claim instead of my rig.
Who it's for
Residential solar owners deciding whether rain is really doing the job on their rooftop. Facility managers whose production guarantee requires documented maintenance. Installers trying to answer the maintenance question when a customer calls six months after commissioning. If you fall into any of those categories, the archive below is written for you.