Is my pergola a good candidate?

[darkmode]

Hi there

So I have this pergola I'm considering to use for off-grid power. It's facing east southeast.

My thinking is to mount my extra panels here with a slight tilt towards the south for rain and snow mitigation.

Good idea or any gotchas?

I do see one potential hazard of rolling debris if the roof ever needs serviced.

 

[timselectric]

If anything around me, looks like it will hold solar panels. I will turn it into an array. lol

 

[chrisski]

I’d be reluctant to just slap panels on the top of it, and I am also at a loss of who you could contact to say its rated for roofing.

I talked to an installer about adding something next to my house like you want to add to your awning, and my code prevents a solar cover from being attached to the structure, so they build them detached with poles that require boring and concrete. They also do not build the structure rainproof and each panel has a gap.

I don’t know how your structure would do in a wind storm with panels attached. First how it’s attached to the roof you do picture that, and second, how it is attached to the ground, which is not pictured. I also see that you are a bit close to the neighbor’s yard.

I looked at getting a pergola to put panels on top of, but decided against it.

If you do want an idea of how many watts can go up there, 180 watts per meter squared is what I plan with.

 

[meetyg]

I see that it's an aluminum pergola. You certainly need to know the load rating (usually in kg per square meter in Europe) before putting anything on there.