SRI VALUE OF SOLAR ROOF

Hi Shameen,

Roof area covered by solar panels is exempt from the requirements, meaning that you would not include that SF in your calculations. If the roof is truly covered 100% by the panels, then you would likely leave the roofing portion of the Credit Form blank, since it's entirely exempt. In LEED v3, this would have meant that your project was not eligible for the credit at all, since the roof aspects was formerly a separate credit from the site elements. In v4, however, they are combined; credit compliance would therefore now fall to your site elements only.

Hi Emily, 

I have a similar case, that our project has solar panel above the roof top, the roof top itself is a flat, painted and accesible by people. do you think it can be include in the Heat Island calculation? and how many SR value for photovoltaik? 

Thank you so much

Hi Emily,

I have a similar question to Melvina.  

How should we account for architectural shading from solar PV installation in the “nonroof measures” table for SR value, particularly when considering PV canopy on the roof covering pavement below?

Many thanks

Vikki

Hi all,

If your PV is on your building roof, neither the PV area nor the roofing area below should be included in your calc numbers. It should be subtracted from the overall total roof area - doing this ensures that the associated SF is not counted against you as eligible roof area. You're simply not supposed to include it.

If you have PV on your site, that is when the area beneath the panels would be counted as "Area shaded by structures with energy generation systems", contributing towards the compliant site area for nonroof measures.

Hi Emily,

Thank you for explanation. I do have another question for further clarification:

Does this mean the SF of Solar Panel Roofing should be excluded from both sides of the equation?
Meaning it would not be included as in the "Nonroof Measure" value, a "High Reflectance Roof" value, or within the "Total Roof Area"?

Correct, if it's on the roof, it's basically neutral. 

The total applicable roof area excludes the square footage covered by solar panels; there is nowhere on the form to account for this area of the roof since is neither compliant nor non-compliant. USGBC knows that PV panels are serving a specific, beneficial purpose that is not meant to be highly reflective, and the project benefits from their inclusion through other credits, so you are not penalized for having them.

Hi All, 

A project I am working on project that has a large PV canopy over bus storage (i.e. not on the roof of a building). There is concrete paving underneath the PV canopy. My question is should the area of the PV canopy and area of the paving material underneath be excluded from the calculations? Alternatively, would the paving be included in the total project paving area and the area of the PV would be included in "Area shaded by structures with energy generation systems"? This would count the same area twice. 

Am I understanding that the PV over the bus storage is open structure? It is providing shade because it is not mounted to a solid roof surface, but is supported by other structures? If so, I would count that SF as area shaded, but would not count it as the concrete SF since that would double count and would be flagged by the reviewers.