You can also have a good-performing solar panel system if you have an east and west-facing roof, as you will have exposure in both the morning, afternoons and evenings. Your roof may be unsuitable for solar panels if it faces north, as this will have a direct impact on your generation. How can I calculate the orientation of my roof?
Glass roofs: As they are too fragile to support the solar panels and fixings. Nevertheless, if your roof isn’t suitable for solar panels there are other options too. For example, you may be able to install ground-mounted solar panels to take advantage of any shade-free land you own.
You can have solar panels on a flat roof, but they need a specialist mounting system to raise them to a suitable angle and provide ballast. Designing the system also requires a compromise between packing the available space and leaving room for shading between rows of modules.
Your roof will need to be large enough to fit a suitable number of solar panels, as there’s rarely much point putting just two or three panels up there. The average solar panel takes up 2m², and your installer should leave around 40cm on each side of the array, as well as 3cm between every panel.
Thatched roofs are not suitable for solar panels. There’s no mounting system designed for thatch, which wouldn’t be ventilated well enough underneath the panels and so would rot. And given that thatched roofs already present a fire risk, putting an electrical system on top wouldn’t be sensible!
As long as your roof is pitched, has enough unshaded space, and doesn’t contain spray foam insulation underneath, it should be suitable for solar panels. The large majority of UK roofs are more than capable of supporting solar panels for as long as you need them to.