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The Receptivity of Roofs to Solar Panels
Published:
30 October 2012
by MDPI
in The 2nd World Sustainability Forum
session Sustainable Development Policy and Practice
Abstract: 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.
Keywords: solar, panel, roof, obstacle, receptivity