The Receptivity of Roofs to Solar Panels

Abstract: The importance of roof design to host solar panels is increasingly recognized. Orientation, roof pitch, roof type, and a variety of obstructions all work to either make a roof receptive to solar panels, or difficult for solar panels to be installed, or something in between. This paper proposes a roof property which might be called receptivity, to characterize the degree to which a roof is or is not well-suited for solar panels. The characteristics of a receptive roof are explored. A scoring system is proposed for this property of receptivity. A variety of roof types are evaluated with the proposed scoring system, and a number of real roof examples are scored and examined. Best practices to encourage roof receptivity are offered.