MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY
KELLY PICKEREL MANAGING EDITOR
No holes, NO PROBLEM Two mounting systems offer non-penetrating solutions for installing solar on sloped roofs. What if you could install traditional solar panels on a sloped roof with no penetrations? Not low-watt, adhesive modules; not flexible thin-film; but rigid, glassed, crystalline solar panels on rails. Impossible, right? According to not one but two solar mounting companies, it’s possible, and multiple successful installations prove it. In a highly saturated market, mounting manufacturers have continuously innovated to get ahead (rail-less systems were recently considered revolutionary), and the competition is getting even more creative. Minnesota solar installer Mouli Engineering has UL certification for its SolarPod Crown non-penetrating system, and installers and homeowners alike
are asking for the pioneering product. S:FLEX has already installed 3 MW of its Flat Direct non-penetrating solution in Europe, and the company is ready to bring the aerodynamic marvel state-side. We spoke with both companies to find out how it’s possible to install railed panels without creating any holes in the roof.
SolarPod Crown The idea for the non-penetrating sloped roof mounting system came from the direct installation experience of Mouli Engineering and its CEO Mouli Vaidyanathan. “We started as an installer nine years ago, installing conventional legacy
systems, drilling holes into the roof,” Vaidyanathan said. “The holes were taking way too much time. You had to find the rafters and then you had to drill the pilot holes and then you had to put on the standoff, then the rails. I didn’t like the entire process. I felt it was too cumbersome and labor intensive.” Thus the idea for a simplified system that could be installed quickly and with no holes in the roof started to take root. Vaidyanathan designed an entire line of SolarPod plug-and-play systems for easier installation for many applications, but SolarPod Crown is the only one for sloped roofs. The system uses standardized rails bracketed together and “draped” over the
Mouli Engineering’s SolarPod Crown straddles both sides of a roof for a non-penetrating system
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3/21/17 12:53 PM