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Your roof plays a key role: One of the first questions Amy’s Roofing and Solar asks a customer is the age and condition of their roof. About half need work to integrate solar energy, and the road ahead can be especially frustrating for those who still have five, 10 or even 15 years before needing a new roof.

Lack of tax incentives for roofs: Unlike solar panels, tax incentives do not help offset underlying roof problems, even when solutions are provided by switching to solar energy. The Internal Revenue Service clearly states that the federal tax credit that can cover up to 30 percent of a photovoltaic system does not include “traditional building components that primarily serve a roofing or structural function.”

Opt for solar energy when it’s time to renovate your roof: While there may be some situations where it makes financial sense to install panels and take them down later to re-roof, it makes more sense to wait to do everything at once. “The best time to go solar is when you buy a new roof,” said Kealy Dewitt, vice president of marketing and public policy for roofing company GAF.

Not long ago, Bryan and Summer Stubblefield wanted to equip their A Californian house equipped with solar energy panels. They were considering an electric vehicleand powering it with the sun seemed like the right choice for both their wallets and the planet.

They contacted a few contractors, who provided quotes in the range of $28,000 for the solar system. But each offer came with a caveat: Photovoltaic panels can last 25 years or older, but the roof of their 2,000-square-foot home was still about 10 years old. This required a difficult decision: pay for a replacement now, which would almost double the cost of the project, or install all that hardware knowing they would have to remove and reinstall it when it came time to re-roof – a job that can cost Dear. hundreds of dollars per panel.

“At that point we froze,” Bryan Stubblefield said. “The fact that we still had a decision to make caused pause.”

What is the condition of the roof

The Stubblefields are far from alone in this dilemma, said Amy Atchley, one of the contractors contacted by the couple. One of the first questions her company, Amy’s Roofing and Solar, asks a customer is about the age and condition of their roof. About half need work to integrate solar energy and, she said, the road ahead can be especially frustrating for those who still have five, 10 or even 15 years before they need a new roof.

“It’s really hard to advise people,” she says. “Most people just decide to wait.”

Residential solar systems typically provide 5 to 11 kilowatts of powerwho, with some 5 million homes enjoy the sunthat’s more than 38 gigawatts nationally. This is the equivalent more than 11,000 wind turbines. In addition to helping to mitigate climate change, photovoltaic panels can also help provide resilience against outages. But when homeowners have to align their desire to go green with the age of their roof, those benefits can be delayed — or terribly costly.

Lack of tax incentives

One reason the issue can be so thorny is that, unlike solar panels, tax incentives don’t help offset the roof’s underlying problems, even if the solutions are provided by switching to energy solar. THE The Internal Revenue Service clearly states that the federal tax credit that can cover up to 30% of a photovoltaic system does not include “traditional building components that primarily serve a roofing or structural function.”

The Stubblefields said the lack of support “absolutely” influenced their decision to wait. But Stubblefield said he understood it would be very costly for the government to subsidize such a large expense.

The potential good news is that — whatever the roofing incentives — the residential solar market is nascent enough that it doesn’t yet have much to worry about losing customers like the Stubblefields. THE approximately half a million residential solar systems commissioned each year is a far cry from the estimated 5 million homes that need a new roof each year. That means there are still plenty of potential solar customers who need a new roof anyway — and that’s a demographic that many companies are targeting.

Get a New Roof and Go Solar

“The best time to go solar is when you buy a new roof,” said Kealy Dewitt, vice president of marketing and public policy for roofing company GAF. The organization recently designed a product called Timberline Solar, which integrates a photovoltaic panel into a shingle that installs much like a conventional shingle. If GAF can convince more people in need of new roofs to convert to solar shingles, Dewitt said it would be “a massive opportunity for clean energy deployment.”

Atchley agrees. While there may be some situations where it makes financial sense to install panels and take them down later to re-roof, it makes more sense to wait to do everything at once. Many of her customers find it while looking for deals on a roof and end up installing solar as well. The opposite rarely happens, she says.

Like Dewitt, she thinks the government could do more to encourage integrated roofing and photovoltaic technologies. His company, for example, sells a metal roof designed to easily accept solar energy and have a lifespan almost twice that of the average panel. It is currently not eligible for clean energy incentives.

“You’ll have the roof and solar power,” she said. “It should count.”

In an aerial view, solar panels are visible on the roof of a building at an apartment complex in San Rafael, California.

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Justin Sullivan

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Getty Images

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Lawmakers have tried to solve this problem. In 2021, Democratic members of Congress introduced the “RAISE the Roof Act” which would have expanded the solar tax credit to include these integrated solutions. Such efforts, however, have gone nowhere, leaving many potential solar users with difficult calculations to make regarding their roof. This includes the Stubblefields, who have since moved.

“It looks like we have about five to 10 years left on the roof,” Bryan said. “We are faced with the same question again.”