SolarCity, a global provider of clean energy, introduced LightMount™, a lightweight roof mounting product that will maximize solar installation capacity on commercial building rooftops. LightMount™ will be available exclusively to SolarCity customers for commercial rooftop solar installations.

LightMount™ was engineered to ease rooftop weight constraints and maximize the solar capacity of a system. Commercial building rooftops have strict codes specifying weight constraints to comply with safety codes. On average, the distributed weight of conventional solar photovoltaic (PV) panels is about 3-4 pounds per square foot (lbs/sq.ft.) With LightMount™, the distributed weight of PV panels is reduced to 2.3 lbs/sq.ft., which maximizes the space for solar.

“Many commercial users want to switch to solar energy to meet their company’s sustainability goals. LightMount™ addresses the concerns faced by a lot of commercial users who can now qualify to install a solar system, or maximize the use of their rooftop space to deploy a larger solar system,” said Erik Fogelberg, SolarCity’s senior director of Commercial Sales.

Commercial customers who lease their real estate space are sometimes not allowed to make building changes that would penetrate the roof or the walls. LightMount™ is an ideal solution in these cases because it is a non-penetrating racking product that is bonded to the rooftop creating a monolithic foundation for the solar PV system. 

SolarCity adheres to commercial building and safety codes including IBC, NEC, OSHA, UL and DSA and has NABCEP-certified personnel. The company handles all aspects of the solar implementation, including the design, auditing, permitting, to monitoring and maintenance of the solar systems for the lifetime of the contract.