A racking system for solar install on ballasted membrane roofs has been developed by Ohio-based Roll-A-Rack. The rack is designed not to compromise a roof’s structural integrity, which relies on its ballasts for stability.
The added weight of solar can often surpass a membrane roof’s physical limit, said Roll-A-Rack. To address this, the company developed a 12-inch metal channel rack that is distributed across existing roof ballast while securing the solar panels.
The rack can be as thin as 22-gauge, and roll-formed. Roll-A-Rack said it supports 50 psf snow loads and 37.5 psf wind uplift. The company said automated install is feasible for its product.
Roll-A-Rack said it is working to line up developers or installers to test the product. The first 100 kW of racking would be provided for free. The company also said it would perform wind uplift analysis to determine ballast requirements.
Product development was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Technologies Office.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.