[Logical me]

They make solar panels that are heated to prevent snow and ice build-up

So they use electricity from coal or gas electric plants to provide power to heat the solar panels. Wow, what a clever plan. Green people are worst than just insane, they should not even be on the planet.

[Ben Ficklin]

You need to accept the reality that renewable energy is replacing fossil fuel. Every year the price of solar and wind gets cheaper

Solar works fine in places where there is a lot of snow and ice because because snow and ice create a lot of reflected sunlight which increases the solar panel output.

[palmer]

So they use electricity from coal or gas electric plants to provide power to heat the solar panels

I've never heard of a heated solar panel. OTOH there are diesel generators on every wind power site to spin the turbines, deice them, heat the oil, etc. There's clearly fossil used to create and maintain any kind of renewable. But there's also free input from sun and wind that we can tap into.

In 50 years or so, there will be solar everywhere. Wind is primitive and it will be phased out.