Solar panels on Pergola?

Parent Cafe
1

Has anyone had Solar Panels installed on Pergola in your yard? How did it work for you and will it withstand high winds?
Solar has been on my mind for a long time and I hate to put it on my roof because

  1. My roof is over 20 years old and the concrete tiles are pretty brittle
  2. I’ve heared horror stories about solar panels problems with the plywood underneth, basically it is suggested that when you put on a new roof with the plywood, design solar penal around it.
    So, I just had this crazy idea to install a pergola and put solar panels on it. I have a swimming pool that is 15x25’ there is at least 10’ concreate surrounded the pool, so I thought to put a pergolar over the pool and cover it with solar panel would work.

One thing of concern is that there is high winds in my area in the winter, not often, but when it happens, it could be very stong. I had to nail down my double wood gate to prevent it been blown away. And about 10 years ago, when some of the fence posts were not strong enough, a section of the fence was blown down.

2

I think you could put solar panels on a pergola, but I would have an engineer design the pergola so that it accounts for all the extra loads. Make him aware that you may have local wind conditions that may be worse than whatever your local building code says is the design wind speed.

3

There is a house not too far from a shopping center where I periodically go… it has a carport with a solar panel cover. You absolutely need to have a solar company come out and give you some ideas. That would not be a DIY project.

4

Many of the mall parking lots near me have installed solar panels over their parking (some on street level and others on the roof level of a parking garage). I think this would be similar.

5

I have been thinking of doing the same thing, mainly because the southern exposure of my house is the front and I don’t want to look at the panels every time I drive up. I looked on Pinterest, and there are some examples of patio covers with integrated solar panels. I would love to hear about your progress.