Metal & Copper Roofing Blog

Solar Panels and Metal Roofs - What Solar Companies Don’t Understand

aluminumpanelssmallWe were contacted recently by homeowner who had been told by a national solar contractor that the roof she had (our MRN Energy Star metal shingle) wasn’t suitable for mounting a solar panel array. They even suggested that she would need to change her roof to asphalt shingles in order to accept a set of solar panels on her roof! It’s unfortunate when such misguided and simply wrong information is dispensed by an operation that likes to present itself as an expert in the field.

While there may be one or two types of which I’m not aware (there are literally hundreds on the market, so forgive me in advance if I miss one!), but I’m very comfortable saying that all metal roof systems have an attachment system for roof-mounted solar equipment. Metal Roof Network offers many profiles of metal roof products with the mounting hardware for solar equipment for each one. Roof-mounted solar equipment is just too popular to ignore the demand, and every manufacturer of metal roofing has designed brackets and mounts for the task.

Our client with the metal shingles (25 years old and showing no signs of deterioration!) was smart enough to contact us and check the accuracy of the solar company’s advice and found that she could indeed mount solar hardware on her metal roof. The only difference was the mounting brackets have to be made for the specific metal roof profile she has, as “off the shelf” brackets used for asphalt shingles won’t do the job.

It’s rather silly that solar companies would provide such erroneous advice, as they’re supposed to be “environmentally conscious.” If that were truly the case, they would realize that asphalt roofs are about the least environmentally sound roof options you can buy as they ALL end up in a landfill when they wear out. Metal roofs on the other hand, not only last many times as long, but at the end of their service life (100 years from now in the case of the more arid states!), they can be recycled into other metal products. Now that is truly earth-friendly.

If you’re considering a solar panel system for mounting on your roof and you have or want a long-lasting metal roof be sure to ask a metal roof expert for advice. Don't just listen to a solar panel company who may know little about the real benefits of metal roofing!

Topics: solar panels and metal roofing