Publications
Confirming the Strength of Residential Roof Structures for Solar Installations
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories conducted a first-ofits- kind study to help dispel misperceptions that many existing rooftops cannot carry the actual load created by rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Test data on rooftop structure load capacity wasn’t previously available to the industry, and research to collect such data was made costly by the need to test each scaled structure to the point of failure. The Energy Department funded this study to provide scientific data to the industry that can decrease uncertainty, help eliminate misperceptions, and ultimately alleviate extraneous solar PV permitting costs.