Not too way back, Bryan and Summer time Stubblefield needed to outfit their California dwelling with photo voltaic panels. They have been contemplating an electrical car, and powering it with the solar appeared like the best selection for each their pocketbook and the planet.
They contacted just a few contractors, who offered quotes within the $28,000 vary for the photo voltaic system. However every bid got here with a caveat: photovoltaic panels can final 25 years or extra, however the roof on their 2,000-square-foot dwelling had about 10 years left in it. This made for a troublesome resolution: Pay for a alternative now, which might practically double the price of the undertaking, or set up all that {hardware} realizing they’d have to take away and reinstall it when it got here time to reroof — a job that may value tons of of {dollars} per panel.
“At that time we froze,” mentioned Bryan Stubblefield. “The truth that we had yet one more resolution to make brought about pause.”
The Stubblefields are removed from alone on this dilemma, mentioned Amy Atchley, one of many contractors the couple contacted. Among the many first questions her firm,Amy’s Roofing and Photo voltaic, asks a buyer is the age and situation of their roof. About half want work accomplished to accommodate photo voltaic and, she says, the trail ahead could be notably vexing for individuals who nonetheless have 5, 10, and even 15 years to go earlier than needing a reroof.
“It’s actually laborious to counsel folks,” she mentioned. “Most individuals simply determine to attend.”
Residential photo voltaic programs often present 5 to 11 kilowatts of energy, which, with some 5 hundreds of thousands properties tapping the solar, provides as much as over 38 gigawatts nationally. That’s the equal of greater than 11,000 wind generators. Except for serving to mitigate local weather change, photovoltaic panels also can assist present resiliency in opposition to outages. However when owners should align their need to go inexperienced with the age of their roof, these advantages could be delayed — or frightfully costly.
One cause the query could be so vexing is as a result of not like photo voltaic panels, tax incentives don’t assist offset underlying roof points — even when addressing them is finished whereas going photo voltaic. The Inner Income Service makes clear that the federal tax credit score that may cowl as a lot as 30 % of a photovoltaic system doesn’t embody “conventional constructing elements that primarily serve a roofing or structural perform.”
The Stubblefields mentioned the shortage of help “completely” influenced their resolution to attend. However Bryan Stubblefield mentioned he understands that it might be fairly costly for the federal government to subsidize such a serious expense.
The possibly excellent news is that — no matter roofing incentives — the residential photo voltaic market is nascent sufficient that it might not but want to fret a lot about dropping prospects just like the Stubblefields. The half 1,000,000 or so residential photo voltaic programs that come on-line annually is much in need of the 5 million or so properties that want a brand new roof annually. That implies that there are nonetheless loads of potential photo voltaic prospects who want a brand new roof anyway — and it’s a demographic that many firms are concentrating on.
“The perfect time to go photo voltaic is whenever you’re getting a brand new roof,” mentioned Kealy Dewitt, vp of selling and public coverage on the roofing firm GAF. The group lately designed a product it calls Timberline Photo voltaic, which includes a photovoltaic panel right into a shingle that’s put in very like a standard shingle. If GAF can get extra individuals who want new roofs to transform to photo voltaic shingles, Dewitt mentioned it might be “a large deployment alternative for clear vitality.”
Atchley agrees. Though there could also be some conditions the place it makes monetary sense to put in panels and dismantle them later to reroof, ready to do it makes probably the most sense. A lot of her prospects discover her whereas searching for bids for a roof and find yourself putting in photo voltaic, too. It hardly ever occurs the opposite means round, she mentioned.
Like Dewitt, she thinks the federal government may do extra to incentivize built-in roofing and photovoltaic applied sciences. Her firm, for instance, sells a steel roof designed to simply settle for photo voltaic and have a lifespan nearly twice that of the common panel. It doesn’t at present qualify for clear vitality incentives.
“You’re getting the roof and photo voltaic,” she mentioned. “It ought to rely.”
Lawmakers have tried to handle this difficulty. In 2021, democratic members of Congress launched the “RAISE the Roof Act” that will have expanded the photo voltaic tax credit score to incorporate these built-in options. Such efforts have gone nowhere, nevertheless, leaving many would-be photo voltaic adopters with troublesome calculations to make about their roof. That features the Stubblefields, who’ve since moved.
“It appears like we have now about 5 to 10 years left on the roof,” mentioned Bryan. “We’re confronted with the identical query once more.”
